Scarlet Wind
by The Uncreative
Summary: "I woke up in an unfamiliar room and all I could do was wonder why I was still alive."
1. Chapter 1: Why Am I Not Dead?

**Author Notes:**

Heh, I had fun writing this. I don't really know what else to say about it. Guess I'll start with intros. Hello, I'm The Uncreative and this is my first crack at a Madoka Magica story. Sssssssort of. There was the Familiar of Zero crossover one-shot but this one isn't a crossover. The idea for this story came sometime after that one. I like Madoka Magica, it's probably my favorite anime ever, so I started tossing around ideas for a story set in the universe because I really wanted to write something for it.

What we got was a magical girl with amnesia.

Wait! Don't leave yet, there's more to the story! I acknowledge that amnesia isn't the most original idea out there. I also acknowledge that my pen name up there pretty accurately sums me up, so I don't know what you, me, or anyone expected. Obviously there's going to be far more going on then her simply trying to find out who she really is. Hell, there's like three different characters that we haven't even gotten around to introducing yet. We're going places beyond just memory loss, you have to trust me on that one.

But let's not discuss people and plot points that haven't shown up yet, maybe a brief word on the two we are familiar with. First up is Scarlet and yes, her appearance (and name, sort of) is totally based on Flandre Scarlet from Touhou. Not so much her personality, but her appearance is very much taken from there. The vampiric biting of the neck that happened this chapter was just sort of thrown in as a result. I thought it sounded cool. Of course it wound up being slightly move zombie cannibal instead of graceful vampire but we all start off from somewhere. As for Ui Inugami... I don't know. I got the name "Ui" from K-On, of all things, and her magical girl outfit just sort of happened. I dunno. Both character's wish and magical ability will come later, so we'll talk about them then.

Oh, and I'm not apologizing for the giant block of text that's just one word repeated over and over. You should be able to figure out what inspired that little moment.

I'm sure there's more that I could say, but I think I've delayed the show long enough. Please enjoy the story!

**Chapter 1 "Why Am I Not Dead?"**

I was woken up by a few rays of sunshine shining through the cracks in the not entirely drawn curtains. I slowly sat up, rubbed my eyes and looked around, examining the room in detail.

"W..."

My throat is dry and I'm having trouble speaking.

"Why am I not dead?"

... What? Why am I asking that? Did something happen or... I get out of the bed on shaky legs. I nearly fall over, but catch on to a drawer before I fall to the ground. I raise my head slightly and make eye contact with someone. Looks like a girl. Short, messy blonde hair, violently red eyes, young looking. I wait a few seconds for the other person to say something, but they just keep silent and stare at me. I reach out for them, and they do the same. My hand is stopped by the glass of the mirror. That's my reflection? I don't know her... No, that's me. So then...

"My name..."

I let the thought die on my tongue. Name. I have one, I have to.

"My name is... I don't know. I don't know. Why don't I know? Who am I? What's happening?!"

I start becoming more hysterical. What is this room? Who put me here? Who am I, why am I here? Why am I even alive? Think, think...

My panic is interrupted by a knock on the door. Who's that?

"Sweet pea, are you still asleep?" Sounds female, kind of old. Mid thirties. "Come on, rise and shine, breakfast is ready."

I don't know who that is. I don't know where this is. I have to get out of here. I... Do I? This could be a good place for me but...

The doorknob turns, the door opens and I make my decision. I rush for the door, blowing right by the other person. They get knocked to the side and right into the wall. I don't slow down and keep running. It looks like the room I was in was at the end of the hall so there's only one place for me to run. I sprint in that direction and find myself in a large foyer. ... Nice house. Focus, I have to get out of here. I spot a large set of double doors. The front door? I don't take any time to think about it and sprint right for it. I charge through it shoulder first and burst them open. I don't slow down for a second and just keep sprinting.

I don't know where I was sprinting or what I planned to do next. I don't know who I am, where I am, what I am. Huh? What I am? Why is that a question? I stumble briefly and put a hand to my head. A sudden pain makes me feel like my head is being split in half. My sprint slows to a crawl. Why is my head pounding? I can't even think, the pain renders me practically motionless.

"My... Head... Hurts..."

It also rendered me perfectly eloquent, that's good to note. I stumble forward a bit and place my hand against a building to catch my breath. As I stand there resting the headache starts to subside. ... That's a lie, it actually started getting worse. My head feels like it's going to explode. I notice a small light out of the corner of my eye and look. Looks like I'm resting at some kind of electronics shop. There's lots of TVs on display in the window. Since I'm not going anywhere, I decide to take advantage of the window and look at myself.

I don't learn much new information. Still a girl, still young looking (how old am I anyway? I look like I'm twelve or something), blonde hair and red eyes. I'm not dressed well for travel it seems. I'm wearing some kind of silk nightdress or something and that's it. Not even any shoes, I ran this entire way barefoot. Now my feet hurt as well as my head. It's good to see my situation has improved, if only slightly. Two things caught my eye. One was my necklace. It was simple, but kind of ornate. Kind of fancy now that I look at it. Second was the ring on my left hand. Does that mean anything? I don't... I don't know.

... No, none of that's right. That's not right at all.

I close my eyes, shake my head and look at my reflection again. Red. Lots of red. I'm wearing a red dress with short black sleeves and a short, black skirt that stopped mid thigh. I had a small hat on and my hair was tied in a ponytail on the left side of my head. I even had white boots with some red accents on. Two things caught my attention. First was the necklace, it was still there. That's good.

Second, was the wings.

"What the heck?"

I mean, they weren't wings in the technical sense they looked more like branches growing out of my back. Each wing had a set of four crystals hanging off of them. One red, one blue, one green, one yellow. I feel like they should be pretty heavy but they might as well not be there at all. That might be why I didn't notice them.

No, that's still not right. I'm not suppose to be h...

My headache flares back up. Okay, no more thinking. Have to keep moving. Keep... Just start walking.

I start slinking down the sidewalk. The entire time my vision starts to tint itself red. It hurts to move, it hurts to breathe, it hurts to do anything. I want to just curl up on the floor and die. I want everything to just stop.

Eh? Did I just hear something? I think so. I try to shut out the pain and head towards the noise I just heard. I start walking and come across an old decrepit alleyway. I look down it and see a young girl, older then me by a year or two probably, with her back to the wall and two men in front of her. What's going on? Are they talking? What would they need to be in an alleyway to talk about?

"Wait," the girl says. "Are you two robbing me?"

"It took you that long to figure it out?!" One guy says. "Whatever, just give us whatever you have."

The girl giggles.

"That's cute, thinking you can give me orders like that."

"We're not the ones with our backs to the wall," the other guy says.

"I mean, not yet," the girl says. "Trust me, you really don't want to do this. It wouldn't end well for you."

"Cocky little girl, aren't you?" One guy says.

"What the heck is going on here?"

The three people in the alleyway turn their heads and see me, a girl with a horrible headache who can barely walk or see straight with no idea who she is or what she's doing. What am I doing? I don't know this girl. Not at the moment anyway. Even if I did know her before I might as well not so what am I doing trying to help her out?

"... Cute outfit," the girl says, sizing me up.

"Who's this cosplay chick supposed to be?" The other guy asks.

"Move along girly, nothing to see here," the one guy says. "If you leave now we'll even pretend you were never here."

"No," I tell them. My headache is throbbing even worse then before so that's all I can get out. A sudden burst of pain forces me to lean against the wall for support. This makes the two thugs start laughing.

"So you can barely stand and you think you're in any place to confront us?" Thug 2 asks.

"Careful, she could mess you up," the girls says.

"What, you know her?" Thug 1 asks her.

"No, I can just tell that she's like me," the girl says. "That is, either of us could take you two in a fight no matter our condition. We're kind of badass that way, you know?"

"Shut up already," Thug 2 says, pulling a small handgun out of his jacket and pointing it at the girls head. "Stay right there as my friend takes care of yours."

I want to reply that I'm not her friend, but I'm using everything I have just to stay awake. Thug number one breaks off of the group and starts walking towards me. He stops just in front of me and smiles.

"So what are you going to do?" He asks. "If you wanted us to stop what we were doing, what were you going to do?"

"D... Don't know," I tell him. "Figure something out."

"Oh. Is that so?" He asks. He kicks me in the stomach and I go down. The blow didn't hurt, I think, but I feel ready to collapse at any moment, regardless of anyone else's actions at this point. His faces adopts an ugly sneer as he grabs my wrist and pulls me up. "All out of energy? Nothing left to say or do? Then why'd you even come here if you couldn't do anything?"

I spit in his face.

"I don't quite know myself, but that was the highlight of my day so I think it was worth it," I tell him.

Thug 1 did not like that very much, as I'm sure you can imagine. He backhands me right across the face with his free hand, knees me in the stomach, then punches me square in the nose. I don't say or do anything in response.

"Oh, you a big girl now?" He asks. "Pain doesn't mean anything to you now, does it?"

... I think I should react. Or show some kind of emotion. ... Nope, can't find it in me to care whatsoever. I'm far too mentally compromised for the pain to register.

"She's just trying to piss you off, don't let it get to you," Thug 2 says. "That outfit's pretty fancy, so she's bound to have something worthwhile on her. Just take it and let's get out of here."

"Right," the first thug growls. Still holding me by my wrist he starts patting me down with his free hand, looking for anything worthwhile. He stops when he notices something.

"Well, well," he says. "Fancy necklace. Boyfriend give it to you?"

I don't... I don't know. I don't know, but I don't want him to have it. I don't want anyone to have it, it's mineminemineminemine. He reaches for the necklace and grabs it.

"I'll be tak-"

"D..."

"D?"

I grab his wrist with my free arm and squeeze.

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH IT WITH YOUR FILTHY HANDS!"

I apply pressure until there's a sick popping sound and blood sprays everywhere. He screams in pain and lets go of me, taking a few steps back. He looks at his arm, then down on the ground where his now severed hand rests.

"Oh, you're so boned right now," the girl says.

Thug 1 pulls out a small knife with his remaining hand and drives it into my gut. I take a step back and glare directly at him as I pull the knife out and toss it aside. I raise my hand and find myself suddenly holding a large spear. It was completely black from point to hilt and easily a few feet taller then I was. I throw it and the spear pierces his left thigh then continues until it buries itself into the ground with the thug screaming in pain the entire time. I start walking towards the now immobile thug.

"Wa-wait, we can work something out!" Thug 1 begs as he struggles with the spear that's keeping him from moving. "I can get you anything you'd like! Anything!"

"How useless," I mutter. I step forward, right in front of the man. I put one hand on his shoulder and the other on his head. I tilt his head to the side and dig in, biting into the man's neck. He starts screaming in fear and begging me to stop but I ignore him and continue my feast.

"W... What the fuck?" Thug 2 asks in disbelief and fear.

"Holy shit," the girl says, also in complete shock.

My feast continues for another few seconds before I pull myself away from the thug. His body is limp and falls over quite readily. I remove my spear from his leg which allows him to fully hit the floor. I let go and the spear vanishes into thin air. I lick my lips and taste blood. I turn towards the last thug and the girl. The thug points his gun at me.

"Don't move!" He says, his hands shaking. "I'll shoot you, you crazy bitch! I will!"

I start walking towards him. He doesn't fire. I walk closer and closer and he still doesn't fire. What's that matter? Too scared to even try and defend yourself? What a useless prey.

"Wh-why aren't you dead damn it!" He screams. "I've emptied the entire goddamn clip into you, stay down you monster!"

"You haven't fired a single bullet!" the girl points out.

"I've shot her at least seven times, what the hell is wrong with you?!" He exclaims in a frenzy.

Finally he pulls the trigger. There's a loud bang as the bullet flies towards me and hits me square in the forehead. I take a single step back... Only to step forward once again. Blood is running down my head from the bullet so I lick off what comes near my mouth and smile.

"You really thought that would work?" I ask him. "You hadn't already figured out that anything you do is completely useless?"

He unloads once again. One bullet hits my shoulder, one my stomach, one in my leg. I keep smiling and walking forward.

"Useless, useless, useless!"

I run forward and grab him by the throat. He points the gun right up against my temple and pulls the trigger three times. I smack the gun away, sending it skittering down the alleyway.

"Useless!" I taunt him.

I spin around and slam him into the nearby wall hard enough that he leaves an indentation. I take a second to look him in the eye and I see fear. I smile, let go and punch him in the face, then in the stomach. I punch him again and again, each blow coming in quicker and harder.

"USELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESSUSELESS!"

I finally start slowing down and look at the remains. It's hard to imagine that this chunk of meat used to be human. It's been beaten to hell and back and is completely unrecognizable. His face has been caved in, his ribs are piercing his lungs and heart, his stomach and intestines are liquified. The brutalized mass of flesh slowly slides towards the ground where it finds it's final resting spot.

"You... You killed them," the girl observes. "You didn't have to kill them. I wasn't going to kill them, just rough them up a bit, scare them off. You totally..."

The rush of... Adrenaline? Something, but whatever it was it finally wears off and I see just what it is I did. Oh... Oh god... I look at the mass of flesh leaning against the wall, then towards the man lying in the alleyway with the pierced thigh and chunk of flesh bitten out of his neck. I... I did that. I just killed these two people and I... I feel sick.

I fall to my knees and start vomiting. I expel all the contents of my stomach. Seeing all the blood and partly digested flesh floating among the bile simply makes me vomit even more.

"W-whoa!" The girls rushes over and kneels right next to me. She puts a hand on my shoulder and tries to comfort me. "Hey, you okay?"

"I killed two people I never knew, nearly resorting to cannibalism for one," I tell her. "I don't know what came over me. What the hell is wrong with me?"

"Oh, that wasn't intentional?" She asks. "Whew! That makes me feel better. I thought you were a complete psycho! What with the smirking, and the vampirism and violence and all that. Good to know it was just an out-of-character moment. Guess I'll make a note not to piss you off."

"I just killed two people!" I exclaim. "Emote a little more!"

"It was horrifying, Not going to argue that," the girl says, "but they were kind of assholes anyway. I was more worried that you were waaaay worse then them. Out of the frying pan and into the fire and all that. Besides, it's not like it's the first time I've seen anyone die. Here, need any help getting up?"

I shake my head and stand up, only to stumble and fall. The girl catches me and allows me to lean on her shoulder. I use this moment of personal invasion to actually look at her. She was about a year older then me, like I said earlier. She had shoulder-length brown hair and matching eyes. Her hair actually stood up in two places, making it look like she had dog ears or something. She wasn't wearing anything fancy, just normal run of the mill clothes. Skirt, shirt, unzipped jacket. I'd call her cute, I think she's deserving of that.

"Come on, I'll help you out a bit," she says. "Let's just get out of here."

"What about those two?" I ask.

"Ah, Tweedle Dead and Tweedle Deceased will be fine without us," she says, dismissing the corpses. "Besides, it's best we get away from the crime scene right away. I don't want to be questioned for a double murder. Before we head out though, looks like your healed up mostly so that good, so why don't you go ahead and detransform?"

"De-what now?"

"You're a magical girl, right?" She asks. "Just detransform so you don't stick out like a sore thumb."

"The hell's a magical girl?" I ask.

"Don't ask me!" She exclaims. "You're clearly one! There's your outfit, your inhuman strength, I can even sense your soul gem and everything!"

"Who's Sol Jim?" I ask. "Friend of yours?"

The girl's eye twitches in anger. Sorry, I'm not exactly privy to a lot of things that I really should be.

"Oh, whatever," she says. "Just calm down and think zen like thoughts. Think you can handle that?"

I remain skeptical, but try calming down. I close my eyes, take a few deeps breaths and focus on calming thoughts like... Calm... Things. I don't know what calms me down. Let's just breathe. Eventually I think it works because a breeze flows by and I feel every bit of it. I open my eyes, look down and see that I'm just wearing the nightdress again.

"In a hurry?" The girl asks with a smile. "Just couldn't wait to go out and save the day so you forget to make yourself decent?"

I start thinking as she starts leading me out of the alleyway and up the street. Well, I think the room I woke up in might have had some spare clothes, but I was too busy freaking out to even think of trying them on.

"Ah! Holy shit!"

"What now?" I ask.

"That huge ass scar, that's what!" She exclaims. "It's huge and runs right down your back. How'd you get that? Magical girls can heal so it shouldn't leave a scar I'd imagine."

I try my best to look over over my shoulder and at my back. Predictably, I fail. Guess I'll take her word for it and check it out in a mirror or something later.

"I'll let you know how I got it when I can figure out anything else about myself, sound good?"

"Eh? You don't know?" She asks. "Amnesia or something?"

"Is that what it's called when you suddenly forget who you are, why you're where you and and basically can't remember anything?"

She nods.

"Yeah, that's me then."

"Damn," she says. "I'm sorry to hear that. That explains a bit. Um... Oh! I haven't given you my name! I'm Ui Inugami. Pleasure to meet you... Huh. Right, you don't have a name. ... Got it! I'll call you Scarlet!"

"Why Scarlet?" I ask her.

"I mean, your eyes are scarlet red, your magical girl outfit is mostly red, there was a lot of red around when I met yo- er, forget that last one. It just sounds right, doesn't it?" Inugami asks.

"Not like I can turn it down at the moment," I tell her. "A pleasure to meet you Inugami. Please take care of me."

"Hey, you didn't forget your manners!" Inugami says with a bright smile. "Okay, so where do you want to go? Do you remember having anywhere to stay?"

"Well, I woke up in a pretty fancy house," I tell her. "It was comfy and well furnished. I didn't stick around though. I didn't know what was going on so I fled as soon as possible."

"It was empty I take it?" Inugami asks.

"No, someone actually came to see if I was awake yet," I tell her. "Older lady, I think. I didn't get a good look at her, I was too busy using the opportunity to run right by and escape. Shame, apparently breakfast was ready."

"W-wait. You wake up in an unfamiliar environment that's extremely comfortable and nice looking, some kind, old woman comes by to check on you and tell you breakfast is ready and your first instinct is to leave as quickly as possible?" Inugami asks.

"I didn't know if I was there against my will or not," I tell her. "It was instinct."

"You idiot! That was probably your house and the lady was your mom coming to wake you up!" Inugami yells at me.

"Was that a possibility?" I ask.

"You stupid- forget it," she drops the topic. "Do you remember the direction you came from?"

"I think so," I say with a nod.

"Point the way, Scarlet."

With me giving directions me and Inugami eventually reach a big fancy house. I think I came from here. Looks fancy enough.

"... You're sure?" she asks as I get off of her and limp towards the door.

"I remember the direction," I tell her. "Might as well see."

Inugami steps forward and rings the doorbell, setting off a bunch of grand chimes. Fancy place. It takes a few seconds but eventually the door opens up and I see a panicked, blonde, older woman standing in the doorway.

"Sorry, I'm far too busy trying to find my kid how can I-"

The woman's eyes widen when she sees me. She drops to her knees and embraces me tightly.

"Sweet pea, where did you go?!" She asks. "I've been worried sick! Your father is out there looking for you right now. What happened? You just ran off! Is everything all right?"

"Everything's alright ma'am," Inugami says.

The woman... My mother, I guess, breaks off the embrace and looks at Inugami.

"Who might you be?" She asks, sounding slightly suspicious.

"My name is Ui Inugami. I found your daughter out in the city," Inugami explains. "From what I could gather from her, she's apparently suffering a horrible case of amnesia and can't remember anything, not even her own name."

"I can vouch for that," I say. "Inugami was nice enough to help me back here."

"Amnesia?" My mother plays with the word. "... Sweet pea, look at me. Do you really not recognize me?"

I look her directly in the eyes. I try to find something, some spark of recognition, but I can't get anything. The woman in front of me might as well be a stranger. I open my mouth, but my mother raises her hand.

"Don't say anything," she says. "I can already see it in your eyes. This is... Amnesia. Sweetie, go back up to your room. You remember which one it is, right? The one you burst out of this morning when you knocked me into the wall?"

"A-ah, right. Um... Sorry... About that," I tell her, suddenly finding an interest in my lack of shoes.

"It's alright, you didn't... You didn't know what you were doing," she says. "Just go up to your room and wait for your father to come home. I'll call him right now."

I nod and take a step forward before my mother stops me.

"Would you like to bring your friend with you?" She asks.

"E-eh? Me?" Inugami asks. "I'm flattered, truly, but... Why?"

"Considering my daughter's current... Condition, I'd like it if there was at least something she recognized with her. She's not likely to recognize any of her belongings or her father when he arrives. She knows you now though, so... Just keep her company, okay?"

"Um... I'm not sure if... Well, I don't think Scarlet would want me around any longer then I need to so-"

"Come along doggy," I say, grabbing her hand and pulling her inside.

"D-doggy?!"

I pull her through the house, eventually reaching the semi familiar hallway with the semi-familiar door at the end of it. I walk in and close the door behind me before going and sitting on... I guess it's my bed. Inugami slowly and stiffly walks over and sits next to me.

"U-um... I'm flattered that you think highly enough of me to bring me to your room but... Uh..."

"What's with that way of talking?" I ask. "I just had a few questions I didn't get a chance to ask you about."

"R-right," Inugami immediately slacks, apparently relieved from some unseen pressure. She stands up and walks to the middle of my room and turns to face me. She strikes a fancy pose that involves holding her hand in front of her face, fingers spread, palm facing her.

...

*clap clap clap*

"Don't clap!" She says. She gestures towards a ring sitting on one of her fingers. "The ring! The ring is what you wanted to ask about, right?"

"Why would I ask about the ring?"

"You have one too, don't you? It's your mark as a magical girl."

I look at my left hand and note the ring on my hand and how similar it is to hers. I put my right hand to my cheek and start at the ring.

"Ah, to be so young and already engaged," I say. "I'm sorry I forget about our marriage plans Ui."

"I-It's Inugami!" She yells at me. "And they're not engagement rings! Look."

With a hand flourish the ring disappears and suddenly she's holding a jewel egg of some sort in her hand.

"This is a soul gem. It's our mark as magical girls. It lets us transform, use magic and beat things up to save the world. Look."

There's a bright brownish light and suddenly Inugami is wearing a completely different outfit. Up top all she had was a single brown band wrapped around her chest which left her shoulders, arms and midriff horribly exposed. Down below was a bit more modest, a cute pair of pants and buckle shoes. She had some furry bracelets around her wrists and ankles, but that didn't hold my attention for very long. What got me was the shiny gem on top of her belly button. Some interesting fashion choices on display here.

"Understand?" Inugami asks. "Magical girl. Transformations, fancy outfits, magical powers, see what I'm talking about?"

"Not so much what you're talking about, but what I did was see some interesting stuff while you were between outfits."

Inugami immediately covers her chest with one hand and her lower parts with the other.

"I-it's not my fault the transformation works that way! Whatever. Look, you're a magical girl, right? That means you have a soul gem and everything. You already transformed, remember?"

Sort of. I remember the outfit I had and how modest it seems compared to Inugami's. I move my hand similar to what she did earlier and find a similar looking gem in my hand. Unlike Inugami's whose gem had brown glass, mine was completely clear, nothing in it. Neat.

"Then, what exactly is it?" I ask.

"Allow me to answer that question."

I look towards the new voice and see a rabbit/cat hybrid thing.

"Oh, good to see you Kyubey," Inugami says.

"And Kyubey is..." I trail off to let someone finish for me.

"I'm the one you make a contract with if you wish to become a magical girl," the thing says. "As such, I imagine you have quite a few questions for me right now."

I nod my head.

"Very well. Feel free to ask anything."

_"Who am I? What am I? What happened to my memory? What is this Magical Girl business and how am I involved in it? Why am I so protective of this necklace that I'm willing to kill people to keep it?"_ These and many other questions ate at my mind. I don't know if Inugami or Kyubey can help me answer any of these, but I figure these two are a better option then nothing. Thus was the beginning of my bizarre adventures as a magical girl.


	2. Chapter 2: I'm different, aren't I?

**Author Notes:**

So, a few things to talk about this chapter. Firstly, let me say that I'm hoping to get chapter of this up weekly. I can almost guarantee that probably won't happen, but it's nice to have a goal.

Second, Scarlet, I suppose. Yeah, the thing about her amnesia is that it's not really a problem. She can get all sorts of unimportant information from her parents. But the stuff that's important to the plot is much harder to get, and that's what matters. Maybe. I wouldn't give a character amnesia and then do nothing with it, that's just lazy writing. She has a reason for not having those memories, but that's for a later chapter. Regarding her character I'm sort of aiming for a sort of Homura style, stoic badass. In terms of just personality, this story is sort of like if Homura was the main character. … Of course Homura already was the main character (twice) and that resulted in the universe being rewritten (twice). Let's not aim for a similar ending.

Thirdly, Inugami. Her magic ability is turning into a large world. Wolves are cool, sue me. Originally her wolf fur was going to be brown, like her hair, but white wolves are cooler, so that's what I went with. She also mentioned her wish. Her wish isn't particularly pertinent to the plot, hence the casual revealing. There's also a lot more to it then just what she said, but that's, again, for a later date. Who would have guessed that someone with "Inu" in there name would have all sorts of canine themes running through her character.

Fourthly, Scarlet's parents. In terms of plot progression I suppose they may not end up contributing too much, but they are an important part of Scarlet's character. I mean, how can they not be, they're her freaking parents. Will they get that much more screen time? Most likely, yes. Will they be major players in the overarching plot? Most likely not.

Fifthly, Miku and Inko. The last two of this four girl magical squad. Inko is someone I'll talk about at length later, when her relevance really starts showing, so let's focus on Miku. My idea while writing her is that she's sort of like if Madoka tried acting like Kyoko. She's really shy and kind of awkward, but she's trying her best to come across as cool and badass. It's making her really fun to write. I love writing for characters whose thoughts and actions are completely contradictory. If you didn't quite catch it, her magic weapon is a magical six shot revolver that fires magic bullets and magically doesn't need to be reloaded. Like magic. We'll talk about her ability next chapter when she gets to show off.

Finally, the witch that showed up this chapter. Yatagrasu, the Raven Witch with a solitary nature. Based off of the mythological three-legged raven (or was it a crow), this was a fun fight to brainstorm for. … Too bad the fight itself sucked, but I had fun coming up with ideas. I liked the idea of an arena where there's only a few scattered pieces of land to stand on, and everything else is just open sky. If you're curious about any familiars she might have, they do exist, but since she was a young witch, her familiars didn't have time to hatch from their eggs before Scarlet and everyone killed her.

I think that about covers it all, and this set of notes ran for far too long. It's such a nice change of pace to actually have something to talk about. Hopefully we'll see you all next week.

**Chapter 2: "I'm different, aren't I?"**

"Ask your questions," Kyubey repeats.

"Inugami, where should I even start?" I ask.

"Don't ask me!" she exclaims. "Kyubey knows more about all of this magical girl business then I ever will."

"Right, that's a good place to start, thanks Inugami," I tell her before looking at the cat-rabbit thing. "Okay, from the beginning. What's a magical girl?"

"Magical girls are bringers of hope who-"

"Just give me the rundown, straight details please." I interrupt. "Metaphors aren't going to help me out with anything right now."

"Very well," Kyubey says. "Magical girls are girls who have contracted with me. In exchange for any wish they may have, they are given extraordinary abilities in order to combat the witches that populate the world."

"Witches…" I roll the word around a bit. Thinking about the word for too long hurts my head for some reason. Wonder why? "And witches are?"

"Witches are magical girls who have let their soul gem become too corrupted, either from using too much magic or from succumbing to despair," Kyubey explains. "Once the gem is completely corrupted it hatches and becomes a grief seed from which a witch is born."

"Kyubey, what the hell?" Inugami says. "You were never this straight with me! I had to find it out the hard way!"

"You never asked," Kyubey retaliates.

"I totally did!" Inugami insists. "You went on about magical girls being warriors of hope and witches are bringers of despair and all that crap!"

"Next time you should ask them for the straight details," I tell her.

"Stay out of it!" she yells at me. "Anyway, we have soul gems which house our souls in them, if we screw up too many times then they become grief seeds which turn us into giant witches which kill people indiscriminately and mindlessly. Get it?"

"A far more concise explanation then I could have given," Kyubey says, scratching behind one of his ear-in-ears.

"So if our soul gets too dark then we becomes inhuman monsters," I sum up, looking at my soul gem. "Poetic."

"More or less," Inugami confirms.

"Of course it is possible to delay that particular fate," Kyubey informs me. "If you can locate a witch and defeat it, then there's a chance it will drop a grief seed which you can use to cleanse your soul gem, thus delaying the transformation into a witch."

"Only a chance?" I ask.

"Probably around, I dunno, 90 percent?" Inugami says. "I can't think of a time I haven't gotten one."

"It is incredibly likely, though not certain," Kyubey affirms. "Though if you aren't careful and use a grief seed too many times then it will hatch and become a witch again."

"Of course it does," I deadpan. "Can't keep things too easy, can we?"

"Any other questions about magical girls you may have?" Kyubey asks.

"So, the girl gets magical power from making a wish and 'contracting' with you, right?" I ask.

"Correct," Kyubey confirms.

"There's like, no side effects or anything, like memory loss?"

"The only time a wish results in memory loss is if it's a part of the wish itself, such as wishing to forget a particularly traumatic event," Kyubey explains. "The contract has no downsides or side effects."

"Except the witching out, losing your mind and becoming a complete monster," Inugami adds.

"Other then that no downsides," I agree. "Is there any other way the become a magical girl?"

"It's possible to wish for someone else to become a magical girl, or to wish for a magical girl to become human," Kyubey tells me. "It's almost never happened though, as there is no point in wasting a miracle on something so small."

"Right. So then that means that at some point I met you and made a wish, right?" I ask.

"I don't know."

"… Excuse me?" I ask.

"I don't recall ever making a contract with you," Kyubey says.

"W-wait, is that even possible?!" Inugami asks. "How can you just not know if you made someone a magical girl?! Isn't this your freaking job?!"

"It's unfortunately become a rather common problem recently," Kyubey replies. "A magical girl in a nearby town called Morioh has been creating magical girls with the magic she received from her wish. Perhaps you've come from there?"

"I don't know, maybe," I say with a shrug. "I don't remember. Hence the questions."

"I wonder why," Kyubey says. "You seem perfectly healthy, no head trauma or illness that would create such an effect. How interesting."

"I feel like I'm under a microscope," I say.

"It does that sometimes," Inugami says.

"So there's no way of finding out what my wish was or what my magic can do, or what I was like before the amnesia hit?" I ask.

"None that I know of," Kyubey says. "Perhaps you could convince a friend of yours to contract and wish for your memories to return?"

"I have friends?" I ask, looking at Inugami.

"Don't ask me, I just met you!" she protests.

"Regardless, I should go," Kyubey says, heading for the window. "It's been nice talking with you two. Should you discover anything about your condition, feel free to call me. I'll be waiting."

And with that, the cat-rabbit hops out my window and disappears to who-knows-where. I groan and fall back onto my bed.

"Well that did absolutely nothing for me," I complain. "All I learned was that I'm apparently a mindless, bloodthirsty monster. As if I needed that thing to tell me that."

"To be fair, you're not a mindless, bloodthirsty monster _yet,_" Inugami tries to comfort me. "That's a ways off. And you're taking this a bit better then I thought you would. When I first found out all this stuff, I was a nervous wreck for longer then I'd care to admit."

"Maybe it just hasn't sunk in yet and I'll wake up tomorrow crying because 'oh, the horror!' and all that. Or I'll wake up and not remember anything, that's a possibility," I reply.

"Hey, don't think like that," Inugami says. "Besides, it's not like you don't have an easy way to get caught up on things! Your parents are right there! You can just ask them anything you might want to know!"

"And just have it all float away like a leaf on the wind?" I ask. "I'll pass. Until I'm completely certain this memory loss thing isn't going to be a recurring problem I think I'll avoid important information. What's the point of getting it all back if I'm just going to toss it all out the window anyway? I don't see any reason to bother."

"That's a crap way of thinking," Inugami says. "You're seriously not going to ask your parents about anything? Like, not even your name?"

"I like Scarlet," I tell her. "It sounds nice. Though I suppose that doesn't much matter if my memory goes poof again. I don't have any better options though, so I might as well stick with it."

"Just get a diary," Inugami tells me. "Write down the important stuff like your name and other important background stuff and you'll be golden if you ever lose your memory again!"

"Look, I'll acknowledge there are plenty of ways to get around my current problem," I tell her. "The thing is, like you said, I can get all that stuff easily. The really important stuff takes too much work and I need to get on that immediately."

"What do you mean?"

"Like you said, anything I need to know about my personal history: my name, my background, I can get by asking Mom and Pop. What about my wish? What about why I became a magical girl? What about why exactly I lost my memory? It can be assumed I was fine yesterday, since I imagine my parents would know if I've been like this for a long period of time. Why did I just lose my memories overnight? Until I figure all that important stuff out, then I don't much care about small things like my real name, or that I had a pet dog named Max when I was four, or whatever."

"You had a dog?" Inugami asks.

"Heck if I know," I say with a shrug.

"Oh, it was just an example," Inugami notes. "So, where do you plan on starting?"

"I… don't… know," I tell her.

"You didn't think this through at all, did you?" Inugami asks.

"Not one bit. Haven't gotten a chance to yet. Kind of got a lot of things thrown at me at once."

"Right, right," Inugami says before putting a hand to her chin. "Okay, tell you what. Apparently your dad is on his way home to have a discussion with you and your mom. Once you three are all done, how about you and me go around town and start looking for some answers?"

"Why you and me?" I ask. "I can figure things out on my own."

"I'm worried, okay?" Inugami says. "What if you're out and about and suddenly POOF, everything's gone again? I'd feel really shitty if I left you out in the wild with no way of getting back to your family."

"… Sure, I get it," I say. "I'm not against the idea. Thank you for your help."

"No problem," Inugami says with a grin. "Now go down there and talk with your parents. I'm sure they're far more worried about you then I am."

"Understood. Just wait up here, I'll come and get you when we're all done."

I leave Inugami in my room and head downstairs. I found my mom sitting in some kind of fancy living room (is my family just loaded? This stuff is seriously ridiculous), so I sat with her in silence and waited for dad to come home. After maybe ten or fifteen minutes, the front door opened up.

"Sorry," a man says, running through the door and taking a bit to catch his breath. "I was on the other side of town, there was traffic and-"

"That's alright Joseph, just come here for a minute," my mom says.

… Joseph. I guess that's my dad's name. … So if he's "Joseph," and Inugami is "Inugami," then where in the world am I? Maybe I should ask for at least a few details. Just enough to establish something.

"Ah! Sweetie, are you okay?" my dad asks me as he joins us and sits in the couch across from me. "Beatrice- ah, sorry. Your mother told me what happened."

Joseph and Beatrice. … Joseph and Beatrice. I'll try to remember that.

"I'm fine… Father," I add, after a pause. "My head is just kind of screwy at the moment. Can we start with me asking some questions?"

"Of course Sweat Pea," my mom says.

"So, where are we, exactly?" I ask. "I kind of grasp the concept of being home and all, but the culture clash is weirding me out. You two are Joseph and Beatrice, my friend upstairs is Ui Inugami. Kind of confusing me."

"Right. We're in Japan now, Sweetie," my dad tells me. "I had some work to do here as a part of my job, so we moved here from our home in Italy."

No idea where that is. Why did I think asking this would help? Names like Japan and Italy have no meaning to me. I guess I had kind of hoped that whatever I remember, if anything, those would have some meaning. I suppose not.

"So, we moved from somewhere I don't know to somewhere I don't know," I say. "That's just riveting."

"Sweetie, are you sure you're feeling okay?" Dad asks.

"Quite fine, aside from not knowing anything about anything," I tell him. "I've decided to cut the questions and answers short, they won't do anything for me. Where's Italy? Is it a nice city? Is this a nice city? I don't know. And since I don't know, that winds up becoming 'I don't care,' which is really a shame."

Mom and Dad look at each other and appear to silently contemplate whether or not to say anything. … I think I can figure out what.

"I'm different, aren't I?" I ask.

"Wh-what?" my mom asks.

"I'm not acting the same as I did before I lost my memories, am I?" I ask. "Please, just be honest with me about that."

Dad sighs. "No. No, you seem quite a bit different from before. You kind of remind me of… No, nevermind."

… All that does is make me curious. I won't ask though. He probably has his reasons for being silent.

"I'm sorry," I tell them.

"For what?" my Mom asks. "You don't have anything to apologize for."

"I'm sorry for not being your daughter," I tell them.

"Don't say that!" Mom exclaims. She seems to have realized that she raised her voice perhaps a bit more then necessary, since her next words are a bit quieter. "It doesn't matter if you don't remember us, you're still out daughter."

"So if I'm not even aware that I'm your daughter, don't act like your daughter, and by almost every definition not your daughter, I'm still somehow your daughter?" I ask.

"Yes," my dad says. "Yes you are."

"… Thank you," I tell them. "I think I might have needed that. Since you're my parents, I figure I should tell you. I'm going out for the day, I was hoping to maybe find out something about my condition."

"Absolutely not!" my Mom says. "You need to stay home! What if you get hurt, or lose your memories again or something?"

"Inugami's coming with me," I tell them. "If anything happens she'll drag me back here."

"You don't even know her," my Dad says. "Having not met her myself it's hard for me to be suspicious of her or anything, but are you certain you can trust her?"

"I know her better then you two at the moment," I tell them. I realize my mistake instantly. "Sorry, I didn't mean anything, I just-"

"We know what you meant," my Mom says. She sounds like she's barely holding back tears. "We know perfectly well what you meant. And you're completely right. All things considered, you do know her far better then us."

My mom takes a breath.

"That's fine," she says. "Just please don't stay out too long. Please don't make me worry any more then I already have today."

"I won't," I tell her. "I won't make you worry either dad."

"Heh," my dad chuckles. "I know you won't. Just be careful."

"I will. Good bye. I'll be back soon."

With that I run back up to my room and got ready to grab Inugami and leave. That plan was stopped by Inugami yelling at me to change into something resembling a proper outfit. Apparently the nightdress isn't proper. Once I had changed into a new outfit (Inugami excused herself from my room while I did that), we both headed out. For those curious, my outfit consisted of a pink sleeveless dress, a white hooded jacket, white thigh-high stockings and sneakers. I didn't much care what I was wearing because the second I do that magical girl thing my outfit changes anyway.

As we started our walk through town I started thinking about the chat with my parents. That talk went well. Could have gone better. Could have gone worse. I'm proud of how that went. Nothing horribly imploded all over itself, and I didn't eat anyone's neck. Always a plus.

"So how'd your talk go?" Inugami asks me after we spent a few minutes walking around.

"Good. It went good," I tell her. "Asked a little about my history, but turns out my memory loss goes pretty far."

"How far?" she asks.

"Apparently my family used to live in some city called Italy, before we moved out here. Something about my dad's job," I explain. "Apparently this city's called Japan? No idea where it is in relation to Italy. Could I walk there easily?"

"… No," Inugami says. "No, none of that's even close to being correct. Italy and Japan are countries, not cities."

"Oh, that makes sense," I say, nodding my head a bit. "I mean, I kind of felt like that information was wrong, but I didn't know enough so I went with it. Countries, huh?"

"… You _do_ know what countries are, right?" Inugami asks in a worried tone.

"Of course," I tell her. "I went to school, I'm not an idiot."

"Oh, you remembered something?" Inugami asks, perking up a bit. "What school did you go to?"

"I don't know, I have amnesia," I tell her, somewhat matter-of-factly. "I just know that in my mind there's this image of school as a horrifying prison where they chain you to desks and fill your head with meaningless dribble until they eventually declare your fit to go out into the world."

"Wh-where did you even get an idea like that?"

"Nowhere, I made it up," I tell her. "I'm messing with you."

Inugami relaxes a bit, then she gets really annoyed.

"Don't do that!" she yells at me. "I'm trying to help you out here and you go and do stuff like that! I mean, how much have you forgotten anyway? You can't recognize Italy or Japan as countries but you know that you go to school to learn things. What's up with that?"

"I don't know," I tell her. "Honestly I have no idea what I do and don't know. Honestly, I shouldn't even be certain that those two back at the house we left are my parents. I don't recognize them, nothing about them seems even the tiniest bit familiar to me. But then they go and say things like I'm their daughter, or that I'm acting different then I used to and I just kind of know they're right. I guess it's instinct or something. Like, there's some part of my mind that still remembers everything? I don't know."

"Hmmm… I'm not a doctor so I can't really tell you much about that," Inugami tells me. "I'm not the one to go to if you're looking for a proper diagnosis."

"Didn't think so," I reply. "That's why I wanted to go around town. Remember what the Cabbit said?"

"Cabbit?"

"Cat-rabbit."

"You mean Kyubey?"

"Yeah, him. Remember the Cabbit said that memory loss could be caused by someone wishing for the memories to disappear?"

"You think someone wished your memories away? Why?"

"No real reason," I say. "I just figure that if that was the case then we wouldn't have to do much looking around and can find out pretty quickly if that's the wrong route to go down. Magical girls aren't that common, right?"

"I've met a few myself, but not enough to call them that comman at all," Inugami says.

"So we just go around, find some magical girls and find out if any of them recognize me, and made some kind of wish related to me. … Hey, Inugami-"

"I'm innocent," she says, holding her hands up. "I wished for my dog to come back to life for one more day so I could properly say goodbye. Nothing to do with you. You stopping those two thugs was the first time I ever met you."

"I see. Thank you. Are most magical girls as open with their wish as you?"

"Mine's not really all _that_ personal so I don't much care if anyone knows, though I imagine most magical girls would have much more personal wishes that they aren't willing to share," Inugami says.

"I see. This might be tricky," I muse.

"Indeed," Inugami says. "Where do we start?"

"…"

"…"

"This will be tricky," I say.

"Indeed," Inugami says with a sigh of resignation. "For now, I should probably go hunt a witch or something. It's been a while, so it'd be nice to have a grief seed on hand in case I need one."

"It wouldn't be that bad for me to figure out this witch hunting business either," I say. "Apparently I'm a vampire now, having to consume others to keep myself alive and strong."

"More of a lich then a vampire, what with the soul gem and everything," Inugami says.

No idea what a lich is. Guess they have something to do with souls. I won't ask, it doesn't seem important. For now, I should focus on witch hunting. This is my life now, apparently, so let's get on with that.

"Okay, step one," Inugami begins. "Get your soul gem out."

She waves her hand and her ring turns into it's gem form. I follow suit, and bring out my gem.

"Alright, now we go around random places, and if it starts glowing then a witch is nearby. We go into it's hiding place, beat the crap out of it, then we win."

"That's it?" I ask.

"That's it," Inugami confirms with a smile. "Alright Scarlet, let's head out!"

"Go team," I dryly cheer as we begin our hunt.

"Okay, Witches cause despair and madness, so it's good to look in places where lots of people commit suicide."

"Cheery thought."

"It's one of the most telling signs of a nearby witch," Inugami tells me. "Like I said, they cause despair and madness which infects people's mind and twists their thoughts until they either kill themselves, or are lured into the witches labyrinth and killed by the witch herself. So by killing the witch we get the grief seed to elongate our life, as well as save the lives of those nearby. As a bonus, we get to put the poor magical girl who turned into the witch out of her misery so she doesn't have to hurt any ever again. Everyone gets something out of it."

"When you put it like that it almost sounds like we're have a point in existing," I say.

"Of course the only reason we need to clean up the witches is because we got screwed over by the incubators and all that."

"Way to kill the moment."

"Sorry," Inugami says, not sounding very sorry. "Hmmmmm. Okay! I think I got something! See?"

Inugami's soul gem appears to be glowing slightly.

"Now all we need to do is follow the glow and we find a witch labyrinth," Inugami says proudly. "Follow me, Scarlet!"

Inugami rushes off and I try my best to keep up with her. After a few twists, turns and accidental dead ends we run into another dead end.

"Shouldn't dogs be better at tracking then this?" I ask.

"I do just fine, thank you very much," Inugami says. "See?"

She holds her soul gem out and some weird circle appears.

"Ta-da!" Inugami exclaims. "And here's the entrance. Now all we need to do is hop in, beat up the witch and move on with our lives."

Ingumai does that costume switch in and looks at me. … Oh, right. I should do that too. I focus as hard as I can and eventually pull the transformation off.

"Awesome, let's head in," Inugami says.

"Can I even fit through the entrance?" I wonder aloud. "The wings are a little cumbersome."

"If you take it carefully it should be fine," Inugami assures me. "Let's go."

She jumps through the entrance and disappears completely. I keep a careful eye on my wings and slip through the entrance as well. Inugami was waiting for me on the other side.

"See? Simple! Ready to kick some ass and chalk up your first witch kill?"

"Before that I have one last question."

"Fire away."

"Do most witch labyrinths start off with no floor?"

"Eh?"

That was when Inugami finally noticed that we were falling through the empty, blue sky.

"What the heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell!?"

"Ah, so this doesn't happen often," I note.

"Don't act so unflappably calm when we're turning into meteorites!" Inugami yells at me. "What do we do here? We're magical girls so I doubt a fall at terminal velocity will kill us, but it'll really hurt!"

"Calm down," I tell her. "Look. Birdcages."

"Hmm? Oh yeah, a bunch of floating bird cages. How does that help us?"

"Like this," I reach out, and the black spear I used on the thugs appears in my hand again. I thrust it forward and it stabs into one of the bird cages, stopping my fall. I climb into the bird cage and thank some kind of higher force that I'm on relatively solid ground again. I look out and try to spot Inugami. … Where'd she go? … She didn't keep falling did she?

As I'm wondering this, the cage I'm in rattles a bit. I turn around to see what could be doing that and immediately come face to face with a very large, white wolf.

"… Good doggy," I say, patting the wolf on the head to hopefully convince it that I'm not a dog treat.

Suddenly the dog glows a bit and starts changing form. When the light dies down, Inugami is standing there instead.

"Really wish you'd stop calling me a dog," Inugami says.

"…"

"I know that's my magical ability and all, but it still kind of bugs me," Inugami continues. "At least call me a wolf or something. Something cool. Doggy doesn't sound very threatening."

"So you turn into a wolf," I note, finally deciding to remove my hand from her head.

"Magical girl's abilities are determined by their wish," Inugami says. "I wished to see my dog again, so I got dog powers. Probably. Maybe it was luck of the draw or something, I dunno. It's really not important right now, we have a witch to deal with."

"Speaking of which, where is it?" I ask. "All I see is blue skies and giant bird cages."

"Yeah, that's weird," Inugami states. "Normally there's some kind of path to the center of the labyrinth where the witch is, but I can't see anything that would help with that. Of course considering the design of the area-"

The cage starts shaking again. We look around and find the cause pretty easily. I mean, it would be pretty weird to miss the giant three-legged raven sitting on top of the cage. At least, I think it was a third leg. It's kind of hard to tell considering how mangled and beaten that leg was compared to the other two. It's wings weren't in much better shape; one wing was little more then a skeletal structure resembling a wing while the other appeared to be rotting somewhat. The raven also didn't have eyes. Where there should be eyes there was just black. I see what looks like some weird type of lettering behind the raven. "Yatagarasu." Is that the witch's name?

"Inugami, are most witches this horrifying to look at?" I ask, never moving my gaze from the dying raven.

"I've seen much worse," Inugami says. "This really isn't that bad, all things considered. I shouldn't need to tell you how to fight this thing, right?"

"Just beat it into submission, right?" I ask.

"Go crazy," Inugami confirms. She turns back into a wolf and leaps out of this cage, and onto another one nearby. She bounds off of that cage and towards Yatagarasu. Inugami takes first blood by biting into it's non-skeletal wing. The raven screeches in pain and flaps it's wings to try and shake Inugami off. She holds tight, her jaws clamping as hard as she can onto the wings. She let's go and is flung into the air. She lands on the raven's face and beings clawing at it's empty eye sockets.

… I should probably help her out. Now, how to get up to the top of the cage? I look around and spot a bird cage not too far away. I can make that jump, right? If a magic dog can make that jump, I'm sure I have nothing to worry about. I don't bother thinking about it any more, for fear of something resembling common sense getting in the way, and jump for the cage. I end up putting a little more strength then expected into it, and nearly run into the bird cage face first. As it is, I'm just barely able to turn myself around and land on the top of the bird cage feet first. I push off again and head towards Yatagarasu. I ready my spear and once I'm close enough I stab it directly into the bird's body. It screeches again then leaps off the cage and starts flying away, with me and Inugami in tow.

"How can it fly when it only has one wing, and that wing is barely even functioning?" I ask.

I briefly look at my christmas wings. Despite my best efforts, they don't so much as budge. Well, that's one more thing me and the raven don't have in common. Even if they did move they're just christmas tree branches, so I don't know what I'd be expecting. The bird starts spinning around very quickly. The force of the spin makes me let go of my spear and I go flying up into the air. … I think it was up, the rapid rotating kind of messed with what little sense of direction I had left. And, yep. There's gravity taking over, I was definitely thrown upwards. Luckily for me, the bird is still under me, so I can use this to my advantage. I bring my hands together and as soon as I'm in range, bring them down as hard as I can on Yatagarasu's head. A loud crack reverberates throughout the air and stuns the bird long enough for me to grab my spear out of it's torso. I land on another bird cage and look back at the bird. I see Inugami continually throwing herself at the bird and either biting off a chunk or clawing at it before leaping back to safety to avoid the bird's attempts to scratch at her or bite her with it's beak. Eventually it starts learning her patterns and manages to twirl, slapping Inugami with it's wing. Inugami is sent flying and crashes into the birdcage right next to me, now back in her human form.

"So are we doing good?" I ask.

"One of the easier fights I've been in," Inugami says, rubbing her head. "I know it doesn't seem like we've done much damage, but I can tell it's near death."

"Are you sure? The rotting and skeletal wings and general sickly atmosphere aren't quite convincing me," I tell her.

"All we need to do is just get in once last good blow and we should be good," Inugami ignores me.

"Ah, good. So if the bird were to get close enough for you to go all wolf mode-"

"Then I should be able to pull something off, yeah," Inugami confirms.

"Well here's your chance."

"Eh?"

The raven witch flew towards us, charging right through the cage we were standing on. The cage is torn to pieces and me and Inugami start falling through the air again.

"Missed your shot," I tell her.

"Stop acting so unflappably calm!" Inugami yells as we keep falling.

"If it makes you feel any better-"

*SPLAT*

"There was a cage right below us," I tell Inugami as I peel myself off the cold metallic roof of the cage.

"Tell me important things like that SOONER!" Inugami yells as she rolls over. She takes a deep breath and works on recollecting her thoughts.

_"__Hey, anyone in there that can hear me?"_

"Inugami, am I insane?" I ask.

"No, I hear them too. Telepathy's a magical girl thing, don't worry," Inugami assures me. _"Two magical girls in here. What's up?"_

_"__Do you need any help with the witch? I'd hate to take the kill away from… oh. Okay, I've been informed by my partner that, in her words, 'kill stealing is okay, don't tell them anything you don't need to.' … Ah! Now she's freaking out because I wasn't supposed to tell you that."_

"Inugami, are they insane?" I ask.

"I'll get back to you on that," Inugami tells me. _"Are you here to help or not?"_

_"__Yes! Yes we are! So if you two could risk your lives trying to distract the witch so we can come in and kill it then that would be extremely helpful!"_

"… Um…" Inugami is at a loss for words. "Screw it, I don't care. The witch is flying all the way over there though, and by the time we could get close enough to attack it would see us. It'd either attack, or run away and that won't help anyone. Scarlet, got any ideas for witch distractions?"

"That depends, does my idea count as something important that you need me to tell you?" I ask.

"Yes it does," Inugami says.

"Okay. My plan is to pick you up, throw you at the witch, then have you go wolf mode all over it's face. Then, either the backup arrives, or I'll have gotten over there and can help out."

"Do you think you can actually make a shot like that?" Inugami asks.

"Probably."

"That doesn't fill me with much hope, but since I don't have any better ideas, let's go with that one. If you get me killed I will be very cross."

I'll make sure to keep a good exorcist on hand if that's the case. Okay, the witch is over there, circling around that one bird cage. Circling once… twice… Okay, here we go! I grab Inugami, spin around a bit to build up momentum then toss her right at the witch. Halfway through the flight she turns into a wolf, which collides right into the witch, knocking it up against the cage. Inugami gets as firm a grip as she can with her claws and bites into the bird. While Inugami gets to work on the bird I start hopping across the cages to get over and help her.

"Now we go, since it's distracted, right?" someone off in the distance says.

"Yes, now!" another voice calls.

That voice was punctuated by six loud bangs, surprisingly similar to that thug's gun. Yatagarasu cries out in pain, but is silenced by a white blur coming down and smashing some kind of large club into it's head. The bird's skull is split open from the impact and it begins falling. The white blue quickly grabs Inugami and hops to safety on a non-destroyed cage.

"Blondie, finish it off!" the voice from earlier calls out.

"My name's Scarlet, not Blondie!" I yell at her as I leap out into the open sky. I line myself up with the witch and aim. I toss my spear and it flies straight down until it impales the bird in the eye socket. Not content with just that, I reach out and grab another spear from thin air and toss it, impaling it in the other eye.

"Not dead yet," I say. I keep grabbing spears and tossing them until there's nowhere else to stab it. The bird fades away, and the world around me becomes all wavy before eventually fading completely, putting me back in the alleyway we entered from. I land as well as I can (face first, since I wasn't exactly prepared for the sudden appearance of ground) and pull myself off the ground and dust myself off.

"That went well," I say.

"I'm not dead, so I can't exactly be cross with it, now can I?" Inugami says.

"I'm glad we could help!" One of the newcomers says.

"Though in all honesty you probably didn't need it," the other one says.

The cheery newcomer had long white hair, tied off in two tails. She had really bright red eyes and her smile seemed more like it had been painted on, rather then an actual smile. She had two gold hoops earrings which matched her gold bracelets. She was wearing an elaborate white dress with all sorts of frills and decorations, paired with a set of white boots. Her weapon was a very large mace of some sort. Her arms looks a little too twig-like to carry that thing around as effortlessly as she can, but whatever. All things considered, I probably shouldn't be one to talk about twigs.

The other, less cheery fellow had short black hair and dark, somewhat purple eyes. She had some kind of light blue cloth covering her arms (sleeves that weren't attached to anything, I suppose), as well as some gold bands in assorted places a decoration. Covering her torso was two strips of clothing the same color as her sleeves in an x shape across her chest. She also had a similarly colored skirt that came down to mid thigh… and that was about it. I think whoever was making the outfit used all the material in the sleeves and didn't have enough to make a proper shirt, skirt, shoes or really anything else. I thought Inugami had a skimpy outfit, but she just got outdone.

"I can't really say we _needed_ the help, but I'm not going to be ungrateful for it," Inugami tells them.

"Always a pleasure!" Cheery says. "By the way, who are you two?"

"Ui Inugami, pleasure to meet you," Inugami says with a bow.

"Amnesiac, pleasure to meet you," I say, putting my hands behind my head. "I've been going by Scarlet though, so that works."

"Amnesia? You alright?" Skimpy asks.

"Aside from apparently completely losing my original character and personality as well as a lot of basic knowledge, I think I'll be okay," I say.

"Well, that's good at least," Skimpy says, sounding a bit unsure. "Well, since you introduced yourselves, I suppose it would only be fair to introduce ourselves. Miku Yagami, at your service. The cheerful one's named Inko."

As if on cue, Inko appears right in front of me and stares right into my eyes. I stare right back. A somewhat awkward silence fills the air for about a minute.

"Have we met somewhere before?" Inko asks. "That's what people say when they try to coerce others into partnering with them, is it not?"

"Are you hitting on Scarlet?" Inugami asks, seeming quite ready to step in between the two of us.

"Of course not!" Inko cheerily announces before taking a few steps back away from me. "Merely an observation about the status of that particular line. I would like an answer to my question though, if you can provide it."

"Amnesiac, I know nothing," I tell her.

"Ah! Of course. I'm probably mistaken anyway," Inko says. "I've been wrong very often in the past few weeks."

"Is your friend always this odd?" Inugami asks Yagami.

"Yep," Yagami confirms. "She's weird."

"Yes, I am weird!" Inko announces to the world.

"Where's the grief seed?" Yagami asks, thankfully changing the subject. "It should have dropped, right?"

I look around and spot some weird object on the ground. I pick it up and show it to the group.

"This thing, right?" I ask.

"Bingo," Inugami confirms.

"Well, you two did most of the work on the fight, so I suppose it belongs to you," Yagami says.

"Ah, what she actually means is, 'I'm really worried about you two, so go ahead and take the grief seed,'" Inko explains.

"I-I-Inko! I mean nothing of the sort!" Yagami yells, her face turning a few cute shades of red.

"Oh, the type who has trouble being honest," Inugami notes.

"I can be perfectly honest I'll have you know," Yagami says with a pout. "Anyway, think you two will be fine on your own?"

"She really means 'Amensia is a really serious thing. Are you sure you're okay? And you got hurt pretty badly during the fight Ui, do you guys want me to walk you home or anything?'" Inko translates.

"Nothing of the sort!" More red-faced blushing. "Stop telling them things they don't need to know!"

"… You want to come over to my house?" I ask. "Maybe grab some food as a 'thank you' for helping out?"

"I'm not particularly hungry, but if you insist then I guess I have to accept," Yagami says, trying to sound aloof.

Inko opens her mouth, but Inugami cuts her off.

"No need to translate, we got the message," Inugami says.

"Very well then!" Inko says with a bright smile. "I quite like the taste of food!"

And with that as the final word on the topic, we all transformed back into casual clothing (thankfully Yagami had much more conservative street wear). As Inugami and I showed them back to my house, I started getting a really bad feeling. And a horrible headache, but the bad feeling took precedence. I feel like something's going to happen soon. … Argh, this headahce makes it hard to think. Must be a result of being repeatedly rammed into a birdcage at very high speed. I tried to keep that bad feeling in mind just in case something did happen. I want to be prepared for anything that could possibly happen.


	3. Chapter 3: The Answer is No, Right?

**Author Notes:**

Okay, first off some character bios:

Yoko Tsukihime: The first new girl that shows up this chapter, who later becomes Luna, the moon witch with a helpful nature. She was a very last minute addition. By last minute, I mean the idea for her came to me literally the second I sat down to begin writing the chapter. The moon witch was always there, but her magical girl form wasn't. Her magical girl outfit was somewhat inspired by Cirno's outfit from Touhou. Her witch was somewhat inspired by Charlotte from the main series, being a small doll and everything, but her actual attire came from elsewhere, but that's not what matters about her: She could talk. Witches can totally talk. Bebe/Charlotte talked in Rebellion (there was some extraneous circumstances, but whatever), and a witch in Kazumi Magica also had very limited dialogue, so witches can totally talk. She shouldn't really be able to remember what she was looking for, or who Yukari is, but my justification, as flimsy as it may be, is that they were just that important to her that they stayed with her even as her mind was warped by the witch transformation. … It could totally happen. Didn't *spoiler* in Rebellion do a pretty good job of remembering her friends? Luna was a pretty easy to defeat witch on account of being a newborn. If she had been around for longer she would have been significantly harder to deal with. I'm kind of looking forward to writing a battle with an older witch that's tougher then the newbie witches we've dealt with so far.

Yukari: Her design is somewhat inspired by Yukari Takeba from Persona 3. By inspired, I mean she's a healer, who uses a bow and wears the pink sweater. Everything after that is made up. Unlike Yoko, Yukari is somewhat important to the plot, so I won't be able to say much about her until we get to that point. … I spent significantly more time talking about a character who dies almost immediately then a character who's actually important. … Huh.

Yuki: Her magical girl outfit is somewhat inspired by Letty Whiterock, from Touhou. The cold manipulation somewhat comes from that as well. Somewhat. Originally she was the one based on Cirno, but then that went to Yoko, so Yuki's appearance changed even though her powers and attitude stayed the same. Her name came late in the design process, but then it came to me. Yuki = snow. Simple.

Anyway, this was a Scarlet and Yagami chapter. Yagami, as you saw, can create illusion copies of herself that are just as useful as the real one. The copies are more or less autonomous, and she can have six copies at most. Anything more drains far too much of her soul gem to be considered useful. The wish that resulted in those abilities: she wished for friends, as Inko was saying before Yagami interrupted her. I'm having fun writing her. Anyway, I plan on touching this chapter up a bit more later, maybe fix a few problems I had with it, but for now it should be fine. Enjoy the chapter, see you next time.

**Chapter 3: "The Answer is no, right?"**

"I'm back," I say as I walk through the door to my house.

"Welcome ba-" my mother pauses when she sees the company I've brought with me. "Sweat Pea, who are they?"

"Miku Yagami, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"My name is Inko!" the hyper one declares. "Good morning to you!"

"Inko, that's not the right one," Yagami corrects her.

"Oh, It's not? Um… Good night!"

"Not even close!"

"Are they… friends of yours?" Mother asks, sounding somewhat worried.

"…. I think yes is a good answer," I say after a long pause. "I currently owe them a favor of sorts, so I though I'd invite them over for a meal or something."

"She doesn't owe us anything," Yagami corrects. "Inko and I just happened to be around that area and thought we'd offer help out. Watching people who don't know what they're doing stumble around is just painful."

"Ah, so you what you really mean is 'I really wanted to help her out if I could, so I did my best,'" my mother translates.

"You got it exactly right!" Inko says.

"Is that so?" I ask.

"I'm surprised too," Inugami says. "I didn't expect her to be so easy to read."

"N-no! None of that's true at all! I don't particularly like helping people out," Yagami insists. "Like I said, I was in the area, and I could get some benefit out of it."

"Well, if you didn't help my daughter out then I don't really see why you deserve an sort of appreciative meal," my mom says. "I suppose you and your friend will just have to-"

"N-no! I really did want to help her, please don't kick me out!" Yagami exclaims, kneeling before my mother and begging.

"Oh relax, I'm just kidding," my mother says, patting Yagami on the head. "I'll go get started on something, so why don't you four head upstairs and kill some time while it all cooks?"

Yagami realizes the position she is and quickly bolts to her feet, clears her throat and tries to regain some of her composure.

"That sounds pretty good," Yagami says. "I thank you for your hospitality."

"And back to the high and mighty act," Inugami notes.

"Shut up," Yagami says.

"So where are we going Scarlet?" Inko asks. "The lady said upstairs. Which room? Are we going to the attic? I don't think I've ever been in an attic before, so it would a wonderful new experience for me!"

"I suppose we could just rest in my room," I say. "There's something I wanted to talk about with you two anyway."

"Oh? What might that be?" Yagami asks.

"Come up to her room and find out," Inugami says. "Or no meal."

"You didn't need to add that last part," Yagami grumbles as I lead the trio up to my room.

Once inside I flop down on my bed. I really like this bed. It's pretty comfortable.

"Okay, so now we're inside your room and away from prying ears," Yagami notes. "I suppose you want to talk magical girl stuff? I'm going to assume your mom doesn't know about it, does she?"

"Heck if I know," I say with a shrug.

"Ah, right," Yagami says. "Do you even know how you lost your memories?"

"That's probably something she wanted to ask you about," Inugami says. "See, we're kind of wondering if perhaps a magical girl wished away her memories or something similar."

"Is that even possible?" Yagami asks.

"Absolutely!" Inko pipes up. "Magical girls are bringers of miracles after all. There's no reason one wouldn't be able to do something as mundane as wish away someone else's memories."

"I see…" Yagami muses. "A-ah! It wasn't me! I'm completely innocent!"

"Is that so? So then what was your wish, if you don't mind me asking?" I ask.

Yagami starts mumbling something inaudible before going silent.

"Speak up please," Inugami asks.

"My wish doesn't matter," Yagami says somewhat sullenly. "Wishes aren't something you should go about blabbing to other people anyway. It's a really personal issue, you know?!"

"But Miku, didn't you tell me that you wished for frien-"

Yagami uses her hands to cover Inko's mouth before she can say anything important.

"I thought I told you to never mention that again!" Yagami hisses at Inko. "I asked you to not mention that to anyone!"

"… Oh yeah, you did," Inko mumbles through Yagami's hand.

Yagami sighs and removes her hand, and Inko goes right back to affixing that permanent smile to her face.

"So yeah, if you think some other magical girl messed with your brain, sorry, but I'm not her and don't know anyone who could have done anything like that," Yagami says. "The only magical girl I'm acquainted with to any meaningful extent is this weirdo."

"Miku has helped me a lot these past several weeks!" Inko pipes up. "I likely wouldn't be alive if she hadn't helped me learn the basics. I owe a lot to her!"

"Don't say stuff like that, you'd have been able to manage," Yagami insists. "Though I suppose you were pretty hopeless when I first saw you. How do you not even know how to use a mace? You just swing it around! And no magic either. What the hell, Inko?"

"My wish was a little unorthodox," Inko says with a smile. "There really wasn't any way that I could get a magical ability out of it. I'm surprised I even got a weapon out of it, to be honest. I am grateful though, since without it I wouldn't have had any chance!"

"I do fine without a weapon," Inugami says.

"That's because you _are_ the weapon, doggy," I tell her.

"Again with that?"

"Ah, you're right. That's because you are the weapon, wolfy," I correct my previous statement. "Is that better?"

"No, but I've more or less no choice but to accept that as my name apparently," Inugami sighs.

"So, how long have you two known each other?" Yagami asks. "I haven't known many magical girls, but I hear a few whisperings from the Incubator grapevine sometimes and magical girl team ups aren't all that common from what I hear."

"Says the half of a duo," Inugami points out.

"I know, that's why I'm asking," Yagami says.

"Team ups are rare, so it's so weird having a duo meet another pair of partners!" Inko explains.

"Well we're not exactly partners," Inugami says. "I just met Scarlet today."

"Today? Like, today, today?" Yagami asks. "Not today as in, a year ago and this is your anniversary or anything?"

"Anniversary? Well, Inugami did propose to me at some point, so perhaps this is an anniversary," I muse.

"I did no such thing!" Inugami exclaims. "That was just you making up crazy things about the magical girl rings!"

"They do seem like they could be wedding rings, don't they?" Yagami asks Inko.

"I doubt that was the intention, but no one really knows where the designs come from," Inko says. "They just sort of appear when the contract is made so… Perhaps some of the designs are based on wedding rings?"

"In any case, we're not engaged," Inugami clarifies. "I met this little shrimp-"

"Is that an insult?" I ask Inko, who just shrugs.

"When she helped me out earlier today," Inugami finishes. "So I thought I'd repay the favor a bit. Also maybe give her a crash course on magical girls so she doesn't just drown from lack of knowledge."

"Should I translate?" Inko asks happily.

"No need, she's almost as see-through as Yagami," I tell Inko.

""I'm not see-through!"" both girls complain.

"And I'm not the heir to a huge empire," I retort.

"Huh? Empire?" Inugami asks. "What's that mean?"

I shrug.

"Stupid idiot! Stop doing that!"

"But your angry, blushing face is adorable," I tell her. Instead of a retort, Inugami starts blushing even harder and sputtering. Seems she's the type who's so unaccustomed to compliments that she just shuts down. Useful.

"Oh! I also wish to try this experiment!" Inko declares cheerfully before turning to Yagami. "Yagami… I love you!"

"E-eh?! Wh-what the hell are you talking about you… you…" Yagami turns a darker shade of red then Inugami, but the sputtering was rather similar.

"Experiment has produced some intriguing results," Inko says happily.

"Indeed. It appears we have discovered an easily exploited weakness."

"Since our experiments have succeeded I propose we engage in a standard celebratory procedure," Inko suggests.

"Oh? That being?"

She holds her hand out.

"I request a high five," Inko says.

I have no idea what that is, but it looks like I just hold my hand up like her. I mirror her movements, and Inko lightly slaps her hand against mine.

"We did it!" Inko cheerfully says.

"Well they seem to get along just fine," Inugami says, having finally recovered.

"But what's that mean for us?" Yagami asks in response.

"A lot of embarrassment and headaches?"

"Hear, hear," Yagami dryly states.

Despite the chat distracting me, I remember something I had been meaning to ask.

"Hey, are they any ways to sense witches beyond just looking at your glowing soul gem?" I ask.

"Hmmm," Inko starts thinking. "I believe that some magical girls have some sort of 'sixth sense' of sorts for feeling out where witch's labyrinths are located. It's believed that this is just an extension of the soul gem's ability to locate them, so it's possible that with enough practice anyone could conceivably pull off that trick."

"That sounds pretty useful," I say.

"You're not asking because you feel something like that right now, are you?" Yagami asks, sounding a bit worried.

"Probably not," I tell her. "I've got a horrible headache though, so I was wondering if it was perhaps related."

"Maybe you're close to remembering something?" Inugami asks. "I think I've read stories like that. When the amnesiac gets close to something they should remember but don't they get this horrible headache for some reason."

"Is that so?" I ask.

"I dunno, I've never had amnesia before," Inugami says.

"Well, might as well test that idea out. Is there anything here that you should probably remember but don't?" Yagami asks.

"Besides everything?" I ask.

"O-oh yeah, that is a kind of dumb question," Yagami says sheepishly.

"Maybe you just need some fresh air?" Inko suggests.

"I'll open the window then, I suppose," I say as I get up and walk over. I undo the locks on the window and lift it up to let the air in. "Hmm?"

"What's up?" Inugami asks.

Running around the street outside my window was a girl. Looked around my age, with short, blue hair. She was too far away for me to get a good visual on any other distinguishing features. Well, except for the kind of obvious one.

"Hey, my head's still a bit fuzzy so please enlighten me. Is it normal in this city to see a girl running around, bleeding profusely and looking ready to drop dead at any moment?"

"… No. No it is not," Inugami replies.

"Ah. I see. I should probably go check on her then," I say, getting ready to hop out of the window.

"H-hey! Watch what you're-"

"I'll be right back, tell Mom I stepped out for a minute," I say before hopping out the window. I hit the ground and try to find the girl again. … There. I start running after her, hoping to catch up as soon as possible. She takes a few odd turns, going down some alleys, popping out of others and making herself very hard to keep track of. Is she being followed by someone? … Followed by someone besides me, that is.

Eventually the girl slows down and comes to a stop, panting for breath. The girl is covered in wounds, the most eye-catching of which was the huge chunk of flesh taking out of her arm which was likely the cause of most of the blood. Other then the wounds, what caught my eye the most was her outfit. A poofy blue dress adorned with a red ribbon that was pinned to her chest by a fancy jewel. The sleeves were short and puffy, and the tops of her thigh-high stockings were adorned with clear crystals. Six white, untied ribbons were pinned to her back by similar crystals. I don't really feel like this is normal, everyday set of clothes so that means this person must be-

"A magical girl," I say to myself.

The girl yelps in surprise and turns around… and around… and around.

"Wh-where are you?!" she asks.

"Can you not see?" I ask. "I'm right here."

"Ah!" She yelps again and turns towards me. Seeing her face allows me to finally notice the huge gash in her head. All the blood pouring from the wound must be obscuring her vision somewhat.

"L-leave me alone!" she yells at me. "We've got nothing to do with you anymore! I just… I just have to find her house and she'll help us and everything'll be fine."

"Who's 'her?' Which house are you talking about?" I ask. "You don't look okay, do you need any help?"

The girl starts calming down a bit.

"You're… You're not with Deus' group?" she asks me.

"What the heck is a Deus?" I ask.

The girl sighs in relief, then gasps in fear.

"Oh no! Yukari! I have to… we got separated and then… she's going to be-AAAH!"

The girl yells in pain and falls to her knees.

"Hey, what's the matter?" I ask, kneeling next to her.

The girl grabs at the jewel holding the ribbon to her chest and holds it in her hands. Upon closer inspection, the jewelry turned out to be her soul gem. Unlike mine or Inugami's, however, her's was almost completely black and it looked like something was pulsing inside the gem, trying to break out.

"Heh, I went a little overboard in trying to fight her off," the girl says, somewhat sadly. "I'm such a failure. I couldn't even… I couldn't even find her."

"Hey, what are you talking about?" I ask.

The girl looks at me. She pauses for a second, as if trying to get her thoughts in order, then she starts smiling.

"Ah! It's-"

"SCARLET, GET BACK!"

Before I can question either of those statements, there's a large explosion. I'm thrown back by the force and Yagami just barely manages to catch me.

"Why are you here?" I ask.

"Someone had to make sure you'd be okay," she says. "I'm pretty good at finding people, so I volunteered to follow you."

"Okay, now what's going on?" I ask. "She was just fine a second ago, then there was the explosion."

"Scarlet, that explosion was her soul gem turning into a grief seed. She's turning into a witch."

"But… But that can't be-"

"Just look around," Yagami tells me. The area around us is starting to distort. What used to be the walls of the alley are being replaced by a black, starry sky. The pavement we were just standing on is turning rocky and grey. I see. A witch labyrinth. So the girl I was just talking to is gone now.

"So now we need to kill her, right?" I ask, getting myself out of Yagami's grip.

"Scarlet… No, you're right," Yagami says, transforming into her magical girl outfit. "She can't be saved anymore. Might as well put her out of her misery before she hurts anyone else."

"Right," I say, transforming into my outfit as well. I grip my spear as hard as I can, trying to psyche myself up for this. Come on me, get a grip on yourself. She's a witch, just like Yatagarasu. This isn't your first time doing this. Though I suppose it's easier when you can think of them as mindless monsters, and not as people you were just talking with a minute ago.

"Alright the barrier looks very astrological," Yagami says, spinning the chamber of her revolver repeatedly. "Her witch must be related to celestial bodies of some kind. Be careful."

On cue, a loud laugh echoes behind us. We turn around and see what looks like a doll sitting on a crescent moon. She was tiny, maybe 30 centimeters tall, with a somewhat blank, expressionless face. The doll was wearing a purple and green dress, with some weird wires extending past the skirt in some kind of hoop shape. Is it some kind of skirt extension or something? The dolls hair was tied in a single braid using a moon shaped decoration. Like the raven before her, I saw some letters appear behind her. "Luna."

Luna began looking around, like she was searching for something. She starts talking, but I can't understand a word she's saying. Luckily some more of those letters appear around her mouth, allowing for an easy translation.

**"****Alice? Where'd you go Alice?"**

"It's… It's not attacking us," Yagami notes. "What's it doing?"

Luna's moon chair starts floating around her labyrinth, searching for someone that won't be showing up. The witch finally notices me and Yagami. It's blank, doll face falls off, revealing a happy, smiling face behind it. The moon floats towards us, and Yagami takes aim at it with her gun.

**"****Hey, guys! I'm looking for Alice. Have you seen her?" **Luna says to us, unaffected by the gun pointed at her.

"Get back witch!" Yagami says. "I don't want to shoot you, but I have to!"

**"****Why? I won't hurt anyone. I'm looking for Alice. She lives around her, and she'd help me. I know she would, she's my best friend!"**

"… Why aren't you attacking us?" Yagami asks. "You're a witch. Witches kill people. We kill witches. Why aren't you trying to defend yourself?"

"Yagami…" I try to grab her attention, but she doesn't hear me.

**"****Does Alice not live here anymore? That can't be the case!"**

"S-stay back!" Yagami takes a step back at the doll's outburst and points the gun at her head. "I'm going to shoot you."

"Yagami, can you not hear her?" I ask.

"I hear her just fine, but she's just babbling nonsense!" Yagami says.

**"****Nonsense? That's the nonsense! Ah, you're just an idiot aren't you? Stupid, stupid."**

The doll reaches a small fist towards Yagami. Yagami pulls the trigger and shoots Luna in the head. Her face breaks apart, revealing a sad, wounded expression.

"Yagami, what was that for?" I ask.

"She was attacking me!" Yagami insists. "She was going to hit me and-"

I bop her in the head slightly with my fist.

"She was doing that," I tell Yagami. "She was calling you and idiot and she was going to tap you on the head."

"Eh? She was… Wait, you understood her?"

**"****That… REALLY HURT!"**

A large chunk breaks off of the doll's moon and shoots towards Yagami. She manages to jump to the side and dodge it.

**"****I just wanted some help and you went and shot me! Mmmmmm, I'm really angry now! If I mess you up some then you'll see straight and help, right?"**

"Translator, what'd she just say?" Yagami asks.

"Um… She's upset, doesn't like you and thinks if she beats us up we'll see reason and help her out."

"I don't even know what she wants!" Yagami protests.

"Back up," I tell her.

"Why?"

A small, fist-sized meteor falls from the sky and collides with Yagami's skull. Instead of the expected blood and brain matter, Yagami just disappears.

"… Well how about that?" I say.

"Hell of a reaction to someone probably dying in front of you," Yagami's voice says from somewhere behind me.

"I mean, it probably wasn't you, so…"

"At least show some concern," Yagami says. "It was just an illusion I sent to scout around for you, sure, but please stop being so unflappably calm. It's freaking me out."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, that is so. Now let's focus on the important part of this, taking out this witch."

"… Right. Where'd she go?" I ask.

We don't get a chance to look as more meteors begin falling. Me and Yagami jump back and begin weaving our way around the various chunks of rock.

"Hey Skimpy, think you can do anything about the meteors?" I ask.

"There's a few too many too- Skimpy?! It's not like I enjoy this outfit! You think I like jumping around like an idiot in an outfit that barely even manages to cover what's important?"

"So that's a no," I say. Hmm. Where'd Miss Moon Princess even go? Wait, these rocks need to be coming from somewhere so… I hold my spear out in front of me and start spinning it like a fan to deflect any incoming meteors and buy me some time to look. … There, way up there. Miss Moon Princess is up there, calling down some rocks to fall on us.

"Yagami, the Moon Princess is up there," I tell her.

Yagami shoots a meteor to deflect and looks up.

"Right. Okay, so how do we get up there?"

"Can you shoot her from this distance?"

"Easily, but," Yagami shoots another few meteors. A copy of her appears right besides her and shoots a few that she missed. "I'm a little busy making sure I don't get hit."

So how do we get up there? I can't throw Yagami up there like I threw Inugami at the Raven witch, Yagami would get beaten within an inch of her life by all the incoming meteors. … Maybe…

"Yagami, I need an opening," I tell her.

"You got a plan or something?" she asks.

"No, I have an idea. It's not anywhere complicated enough to call a plan. How many other yous can you have up at once?"

"Seven, if we count the original me," she answers.

"And how many shots can you get off at once?"

"Six shot revolver," she says. "It takes a few seconds before the automatic reload kicks in, but I should be able to fire 42 shots at any one time."

"One shot per meteor?" I ask.

"I'm almost disappointed you're not asking me for a tougher challenge," Yagami says with a smirk.

Five other Yagami's join the original and the first clone. They start taking aim and fire. 42 shots get fired, and 40 different meteors are shot off course and away from us.

"Damn it, I missed some!" one of the clones calls out.

"That's fine," I say, closing one eye, holding up a thumb and aim my spear. "And here we go."

I toss my spear as hard as I can and it flies straight and true, piercing the tiny doll's body. She's knocked off of her moon chair and falls to the ground. The moon, now without it's pilot, crashes straight to the ground and breaks into a several large chunks. My spear finds it's way to the ground, stabbing into the ground amidst the moon's rubble. Miss Moon Princess's body is still attached to the spear. Her face has changed again. Unlike the previous wounded expression, now the face shows something resembling complete terror.

**"****I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry I tried to hurt you!" **The witch begins begging. **"Alice help me! Alice, please help me, I'm scared!"**

The face breaks off again and becomes a sorrowful, tear filled expression.

Yagami walks up to Luna and presses the barrel of her revolver against the witches face.

"I'm sorry," Yagami says. "I'm so, so sorry."

Yagami pulls the trigger and a loud bang fills my ears as the doll's head explodes into pieces. The world returns to normal as the barrier fades, following the witch's death. Yagami changes back into her street clothes. She bends over and picks up Luna's grief seed. She looks at it, then offers it to me. I shake my head. Yagami hesitates, then takes her soul gem out and presses the grief seed to it. Her soul gem, a calming shade of blue, is cleansed as the corruption flows into the grief seed. Yagami sighs and slips the seed into her pocket.

"Still got another use or two left," she says. "Not really a resource we can afford to waste."

I don't say anything.

"It doesn't get any easier, you know," she tells me. "No matter how many of them I fight, I keep thinking about how they used to be just like me, and how eventually I'll be just like them."

"Is that so?" I ask, not really listening to her.

"It's worse for you, isn't it?" she asks. "No memory means you're starting from scratch and you have to get used to it all over again. Not to mention you were talking with her right before she turned, weren't you?"

I nod my head.

"What'd she say?" Yagami asks.

"She was looking for her friend, Yukari I think was her name," I say. "They were running from someone."

"That's probably why she was as beat up as you said she was at your house," Yagami says.

"So should we just go back?" I ask. "Go tell Inugami and Inko what happened?"

"I imagine they're wondering where we are at this point," Yagami says. "Yeah, let's go back."

I nod back and turn to walk balk, collide with some unknown person and get knocked down to the ground.

"Owowow," some unknown person says.

"Scarlet, you okay?" Yagami asks as she pulls me up.

"I'm fine, who's new girl?"

New girl, who was currently sitting on the ground after running into me, had shoulder length brown hair and matching eyes. She was wearing a Pink sweater and black skirt, along with a pair of brown boots. I was perfectly ready to accept her as the first normal girl I've met since I lost my memories, but then I noticed she was wearing the telltale ring sitting on her finger.

"Have I been cursed to only know other magical girls?" I ask.

"Who knows who you may have pissed off in a past life," Yagami says with a shrug.

"Who are- Aah!" the girl starts scooting backwards to try and put some distance between us. "You're with Deus's group, aren't you! You're searching for me and Tsukihime!"

"… Who the hell are Deus and Tsukihime?" Yagami asks me.

"I dunno, but the other girl mentioned Deus," I tell her.

"Huh? Other girl? Did she have short blue hair?" the girl asks me, standing up to look me in the eye. "Blue dress, with a red ribbon? Maybe a few wounds?"

… Oh dear.

"So, I assume you're Yukari?" I ask. "She mentioned that name."

"Y-yes! I'm Yukari!" the girl announces. "Where'd she go? Where'd Miss Tsukihime go?"

"Scarlet she's not talking about-"

"Yep. I'm afraid so."

"H-huh? Afraid? What's there to be afraid of?" Yukari asks.

Me and Yagami look at each other. Yagami sighs and pull the grief seed at of her pocket. She hands it over to Yukari who looks at it in confusion.

"This is… a grief seed…" Yukari notes. "Why are you… N… No, you can't be saying…"

I take a step forward and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, but she's dead," I tell her. "She turned into a witch and we had to put her out of her misery."

"N-no that can't… That's not… We were supposed to get away from them together, weren't we, Yoko? Weren't we?"

"Ah, now that's a right shame, inn't it?"

"Another one?" I ask, turning to meet our new visitor.

This one had purple eyes and long purpleish hair with a small white hat sitting on top of it. She was wearing a purple shirt with white sleeves, and her skirt actually had two layers to it, an outer white layer and the inner purple layer.

"Y-Yuki," Yukari addresses the new girl as she takes several steps away from her. "What are you doing here?"

"Aw, don't ask questions like that," Yuki says. "No real point in asking a question if you already know the answer after all."

"I don't know the answer to the question," I say, raising my hand.

"Well it's not exactly any of your business sooooo…" Yuki trails off.

"She's here to get me and Yok- Miss Tsukihime," Yukari tells me.

"Bingo! Want a prize?" Yukari asks.

"Is it a good prize?" I ask.

"Scarlet, she's not serious," Yagami informs me. "She probably means she's going to try and kill us or something."

"Is that so?" I ask.

"So it is," Yuki confirms. "But from what I heard, the blue haired bitch just bit it, so I suppose I won't be able to do that."

"Take that back!" Yukari yells at Yuki. "Miss Tsukihime was one of the nicest people I've ever known!"

"And now she's dead," Yuki says. "Shows how far that kind of personality gets you. But I'm digressing. Hey, you two."

"Us?" Yagami asks.

"Yeah. If you two could just sort of close your eyes, plug your ears and ignore the scene about to unfold, that would be immensely helpful," Yuki says.

"You want us to just leave this girl with you?" Yagami asks, to which Yuki nods.

"If you could just do that, like I said, it would be immensely helpful," Yuki responds. "How about it?"

"The answer is no, right?" I ask Yagami.

"Right," she replies, transforming back into her magical girl outfit.

"Alright," Yuki says with a sigh. "Look Blondie, I'm not here to fight. I'm here to grab the girl and head back to Boss for a mission accomplished. If you could just take your exhibitionist friend and walk away then this goes smoothly."

"E-exhibitionist?!" Yagami exclaims.

"Sure, but the problem with that is, then I'm leaving her with you, and I don't exactly trust you," I tell Yuki.

I feel a sudden pain in my right shoulder and see that a large hole appeared out of nowhere. Yuki smiles and tightens her grip on a shard of ice.

"Then that means we get to do this the hard way."

Several icicles form behind her and suddenly fire at us. I spin my spear and deflect the icicles like I did the meteorites from earlier. Yagami shoots the icicles aimed at her, while Yukari hits the ground to dodge.

"I get it," I say. "Your name's Yuki, and you have ice powers. Clever."

"I know, it's a pretty cool coincidence, ain't it?" Yuki says with a grin.

"… Please tell me the pun wasn't intentional," Yukari begs.

"And if it was?" Yuki asks.

"I'll probably cry myself to sleep," Yukari says.

"Allow me to help you out with that," Yuki gets ready to fire another volley of projectile ice, but she's interrupted by Yagami firing her gun.

*BANG*

"… Yagami you missed," I tell her.

"I did no such thing!" She yells at me.

I mean, she's technically right. What happened was that a large chunk of ice came out of the ground and caught the bullet.

"I've grown pretty adept at freezing bullets out of midair," Yuki tells us. "I have Boss shoot at me every now and then to keep the skill sharp. It's useful, as you can see."

"Does that experience work with little girls leaping at you with a spear?" I ask her.

"Want to find out?" Yuki asks as she holds up her hand and lets some snowflakes fall from it for effect.

I take a heavy step forward, and another chunk of ice forms in front of her. This time I actually take the leap forward and break through ice wall with ease. I swing my spear at Yuki, who blocks using a large sword made out of ice. I swing again, this time breaking through her sword. She ducks down and just barely dodges the knife, then creates another sword out of ice and swings it, which I block it with the shaft of my spear. Yuki jumps back and freezes the air in front of her to catch the bullets Yagami just fired.

"Come on, two versus one? Hardly seems fair," Yuki says.

Yagami runs towards Yuki and swings her pistol at her head. Yuki blocks, the pistol colliding with her wrist, then ducks and narrowly manages to dodge a shot from a fake Yagami.

"It's really more of a three on one, if you think about it," Yagami corrects.

"How troublesome. But I wouldn't be Boss's right hand girl if I couldn't handle a simple street fight," Yuki says.

"This is a bit more then a street fight," I reply.

"Fight's a fight, inn't it?" Yuki asks.

Yuki whirls around, adding some ice to her weapon and turning it into a large hammer, and smacks fake Yagami across the face. While her back is turned I close the distance between us again. She uses the momentum of her swing to turn around quickly and intercept my spear with her hammer. The two bounce off of each other, and Yuki again uses the momentum to her advantage to spin some more and kick Yuki in the face. Some of the ice melts off her hammer and it turns back into a sword. She swings at Yagami who manages to just barely twist her body in a way that causes the blade to miss. The swing is followed by seven ice projectiles, with Yagami shooting six of them down and her illusion friend taking care of the last one.

I stab at Yuki with my spear, but she pivots and manages to dodge it. She steps close to me and tries to stab me with a small ice dagger. I smack her across the face with the shaft of my spear which throws her aim off just enough for the dagger to miss. She leans back which allows her to dodge the bullets fired at her by both Yagamis. I plant my spear on the ground and spin around it to build up the momentum and deliver a good kick to Yuki's stomach. Yuki is sent flying back a bit, and lands on her back. She jumps to her feet to continue the fight, but stops when an arrow plants itself in the ground in front of her.

"Enough," Yukari says, pointing a bow at Yuki. "Leave me alone."

"Ah man, four on one?" Yuki asks, scratching the back of her head. "What's the point of a fight if you're going to tilt the odds that far in one direction? Just a bunch of cowards ganging up on some poor victim by that point."

"You hardly qualify for that position," I tell her.

"Ah, it's all semantics anyway," Yuki says with a shrug. "Guess I'll have to report back to Boss and tell her the mission was a failure."

"G-good! Never come after me again!" Yukari yells at her.

"Not happening, obviously," Yuki says as she turns around and starts walking off. "Take care everyone, we'll meet again soon."

Her parting words said, Yuki leaps up to the top of the building, before leaping from roof to roof until she eventually disappears from sight. Once Yuki was gone, Yukari fell to her knees.

"Thank God," Yukari says. "She's gone."

"Is God the one she should be thanking?" I ask Yagami. "I don't really remember seeing him fighting Yuki."

"It's an expression," Yagami explains to me. "A figure of speech."

"Is that so? Well, Yukari, are you okay?"

"Don't ask about me, what about you?" she asks. "Didn't Yuki shoot some ice through your shoulder earlier? Here, let me see it, I'm good with healing magic."

Yukari walks over to me and starts examining my shoulder.

"Huh? But I saw the ice dig straight through," she says.

"What, did it already heal or something?" Yagami asks.

"I guess so," Yukari says. "Do you have healing powers as well?"

"I dunno," I reply. "I just know that this means you have to answer my question now. Are you okay?"

"… No," she replies, after a brief bit of hesitation. "My only friend is dead, and every magical girl in Japan is going to be after my head within minutes."

"Come on, don't exaggerate," Yagami says. "Stuff like that just freaks us out. Well, freaks me out. This one could be at ground zero when aliens invade and wouldn't so much as blink."

"I resent that statement," I tell her. "I can't _not_ blink, it's an involuntary action."

"You completely missed the point I was trying to make, but whatever," Yagami says.

"You think I'm exaggerating?" Yukari asks. "I've pissed Her off, and so she's going to send all sorts of horrible people after me."

"This Deus chick, right?" Yagami asks. "You mentioned her group once, I recall. I mean, magical girl team ups are hardly common, so a group's probably, what, five magical girls? Six at the absolute most."

"It doesn't matter how many she has," Yukari says. "I don't know the exact number, and you knowing wouldn't really do much. I'm the one she's after, so I should take my leave. I appreciate the help you two have given, but it's better if we part ways. Thank you for everything."

Yukari turns around to walk off, but I grab the back of her collar.

"Come along, we're heading back to my house," I tell her. "Dinner's almost ready."

"Isn't it still really early?" Yukari asks.

"Yeah, it's probably more like lunch," Yagami says.

"Then we'll have lunch," I correct. "Plus I imagine Inko and Inugami would be eager to help you out."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Yagami says. Yukari opens her mouth to protest, but Yagami covers her mouth and continues. "We intervened and helped you out, so that means we're a target just as much as you. As such, we're going to bring in our friends and talk this thing over, okay?"

Yukari remains silent, before nodding her head.

"I'm really not in a position where I can complain about help," Yukari says, sounding somewhat resigned to her fate. "Thank you for your help."

"Don't mention it," Yagami says. "We're hardly people who can just sit around when someone's in trouble like you were."

… Where's Inko for translation? I want to hear what Yagami really means by that. Well, regardless of whatever she's actually saying, she's pretty much right. I don't really feel good just leaving someone be. Gripping Yukari's collar tightly, I start leading her back home for a group discussion about just what's going on here.


	4. Chapter 4: That's the Problem, Isn't It?

**Author Notes:**

Pretty slow chapter. Just Yukari expositioning about the stuff that forms what is basically the main conflict of this story. So yeah, that's our plot for the rest of the story. Five magical girls going up against the magical girl Yakuza. Now you're probably wondering "Where did you come up with such a stupid idea for a story?" … Well, you're probably not wondering that because that would mean you're actually reading this story and I know no one would waste their time on this. The answer to that hypothetical question is… I dunno. All the characters in the story were in place from day one, but I have no idea where the idea for a magical girl Yakuza came from. Not a one. Deus was always in it. Yuki was always in it. No idea where the idea came from to have them be part of this huge organization of magical girls.

One thing I kind of liked about this chapter was that it mentioned a lot of characters who won't have much screen time. Yuki got name dropped, and you'll be seeing some more of her obviously but she's not a major character. Yoko Tsukihime from last chapter got mentioned, but she's obviously not important anymore. Deus got mentioned, but she's the final boss so she's not showing up until near the end. Alice was mentioned once or twice, but she doesn't matter. She really only existed to give Tsukihime and Yukari an end goal and potential reason to think that they could escape. She's also witched out about a month or two before the story started, so she definitely won't be showing up.

Since this was a slower chapter, the author notes aren't going to take up a whole page and distract from the actual story. Huzzah! Feel free to leave any feedback or comments. See you guys next week.

**Chapter 4: "That's the problem, isn't it?"**

"I'm back," I say as I walk through the door to my house.

"Welcome ba-" my mom pauses when she sees me, Yagami and Yukari walk through the door. "Have we not already done this today?"

"Repetition helps a forgetful mind," I explain.

"I don't think that applies in a case like this," she says with a sigh. "So then who's your new friend?"

"M-my name is Yukari," she says with a bow. "I'm sorry for intruding."

"Please, you're the fourth girl our daughter has brought home today," my father says, joining in the conversation. "It hardly qualifies as an intrusion anymore."

"Perhaps turning our home into an inn or bed and breakfast of some kind isn't a bad idea," my mother muses. "But enough of that talk. Everyone else is still in your room, and the food will be ready soon."

"Thank you very much," I tell her before dragging Yagami and Yukari up to my room. I reach for the doorknob and freeze just millimeters before I grab it.

"What's the matter?" Yagami asks.

"I don't know. I just had the feeling that if I opened this door something potentially awful would happen. … Yagami, you go first."

"W-wait, why me?!"

Instead of answering I open my door and shove Yagami inside.

"WELCOME BACK!"

Inko shouts at the top of her lungs and embraces Yagami in a very tight hug.

"Aaaah! I-Inko, what are you doing?!"

"I'm welcoming you back!" she says. "Inugami was generous enough to instruct me in the proper way to welcome someone back from an important mission."

"Inugami!" Yagami yells in anger. "Why are you teaching her this kind of stuff?"

"I thought it'd be funny," Inugami says with a giggle from her position on my bed. "And if Scarlet had opened the door and gotten the hug instead then it still would have been funny."

"Good thing I shoved Yagami through the door first," I say as I walk over and sit on the bed next to Inugami. "I'd hate to be suffocated."

"So what happened?" Inugami says, shifting the conversation to a more important matter. "I see we've got a new guest. How'd that one work out?"

"My name is Yukari," Yukari repeats. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Name's Inugami, pleasure's all mine."

"I'm Inko!" the hyper one says, finally allowing Yagami to breathe again. "I look forward to working with you!"

"Wrong one," Yagami says. "At least, for now it's the wrong one."

"Is it?" Inko says. She puts a hand to her chin and starts to think. "Ah! Pleasure ****ing you!"

Yagami, Yukari and Inugami's faces all turn varying shades of red.

"I-I-I-I'm sorry but I'm saving myself for Yok- I mean, I don't swing that way!" Yukari insists.

"What the hell have you been teaching this poor girl?!" Inugami asks Yagami.

"I didn't teach her that! Inko! Wh-where did you even learn dialogue like that?!" Yagami exclaims.

"Oh? Was that one also wrong?" Inko asks, her head tilted to one side. "I remember reading that phrase somewhere online. Did I perhaps misunderstand the context?"

"Inko, I specifically told you to stay off the internet!" Yagami chastises her friend. "This is exactly why! You learn things that make everything very awkward for everyone around you!"

"Inugami, what's wrong with what she said?" I ask. "I don't recognize the word she used."

"I'll tell you later," Inugami says. "For now, just know it's not a good word to use in polite company."

"Is that so?" I ask.

"Yes," Inugami confirms. "Now, topic at hand. What the hell happened after Scarlet left through the window?"

Me and Yagami take turns explaining what happened after I jumped out the window. We told Inko and Inugami about how I ran into the bloodied girl, Yoko Tsukihime apparently, and the conversation I had with her before she turned into the moon witch. We explained how after the fight with the witch we ran into Yukari and Yuki, and what resulted from that fight.

"And that's about it," Yagami finishes up.

"Hmmm…" Inko appears to be very deep in thought about something.

"What's the matter Inko?" I ask.

"Oh, don't mind me," she says. She stands up and heads for the door. "Talk among yourselves. I'll be in the bathroom if you need me."

Inko exits and leaves us alone.

"What she actually means is 'Something about this is really bugging me and I need some time to think about it on my own,'" Yagami translates for us.

"Ah, the translations work both ways," I note.

"So then what's your deal?" Inugami asks Yukari. "Sounds like something big went down. What exactly was your claim? Every magical girl in Japan is going to be coming down on you soon? What could you have done to bring that upon yourself?"

"I tried to leave," Yukari answers. "Me and Yo- Miss Tsukihime tried to leave, and that's not something that they allow."

…

"Am I the only one thinking that that's not an answer?" I ask the other two.

"I mean, from an objective standpoint it _is_ an answer," Yagami says.

"The problem is that it isn't a good one," Inugami finishes for her. "Yukari, we can't exactly do anything if you don't tell us anything. We need you to be a little bit more specific."

"… Alright then," Yukari concedes. "I'm not a magical girl who works on her own. I'm actually part of a group… Perhaps that's underselling it. A more accurate comparison is that I'm an underling in the magical girl yakuza."

"Waitwaitwaitwait," Yagami interrupts. "Magical girl yakuza? Like, the yakuza… but everyone's a magical girl?"

Yukari nods. "We're a huge collection of sorts. We take in magical girls who are lost and near death and recruit them into our ranks. We eliminate every witch and other threat we find and organize the grief seeds to make sure every magical girl has enough to live without fear of witching out. It's an incredibly organized affair and to my knowledge there's never been an occasion where a magical has ever died due to an accident, or a mistake in grief seed distribution. Joining is a guarantee that you'll never become a witch."

"Is that so?" I ask. "It sounds pretty nice."

"The key phrase there is 'died due to an accident,' right?" Inugami asks.

"Right," Yukari confirms. "You're guaranteed enough grief seeds to keep your soul gem clean at all times, but only if you do exactly what you're told. If you step out of line, you're put down and the group continues running like nothing every happened. They roll your corpse out of the way and run business as usual. You're not made an example of, you're simply erased from history."

"Holy crap," Yagami says. "Well, what about any friends or family that those people have? What are they told? Wouldn't that prompt some sort of investigation from someone?"

"You think any of us would join that group if we had anything as nice as that?" Yukari asks coldly. "No one notices we're gone when we're killed, and no one cares. It's just that kind of group."

"Well, like you said, all they do is eliminate witches and other threats, right?" Inugami asks. "It doesn't seem like the kind of orders you'd be keen on disobeying. It's what we're doing as magical girls anyway, isn't it?"

"But what exactly are those other threats mentioned? That's the problem, isn't it?" I respond.

"Exactly right," Yukari confirms. "Witches are easy to deal with. Other people? Other people who are only guilty because your boss told you they are? Those are harder to deal with. It's a lot harder to have your boss point at someone and say 'kill them' then it is to be thrown into a witch's labyrinth and told to survive. I don't know how many of the magical girls I've killed are innocent. Maybe they were all psychotic murders. All I have to go on is my boss's word for it."

"And you grew sick of it and tried to flee, is that right?" Yagami asks.

"Ha! I'm happy you think I could be brave enough to even think about something like that," Yukari says with a sad laugh. "No. I'm far too much of a coward. I'd do whatever they said because I was far too terrified of what they would do to me if I didn't. It was Miss Tsukihime who convinced me that we had to escape. She was the only persona I was close to in the group, and she eventually convinced me that we could escape. She said that she had a friend who wasn't affiliated with the group who could help us, and protect us from whatever the group would try to do. Before you ask, all I know is that Miss Tsukihime called her Alice. I don't know anything about her, where she lived, what she looked like or what she could do. All I know is that Miss Tsukihime assured me over and over that she could help us, that there's now way she'd turn us down because they were best friends and that nothing the group sent our way would be able to do so much as put a single scratch on her. Miss Tsukihime was completely head over heels for that girl. Not that it matters now."

"Okay so, let me sum it up," Yagami says. "Jackass group, you tried to flee to a friend, they sent Frostbite after you. That's what we now know."

"So then how does Deus fit into it?" I ask. "Considering you called it 'Deus's group' I suppose she's the leader?"

Yukari nods. "She's the top of the pyramid, the head magical girl, the one who started the group in the first place. She's not keen on the idea of anyone actually leaving the group. It poses security issues if that person was ever caught or leaked information or something. I don't personally understand it. We're a bunch of magical girls, not the mob. What information is there to leak? I don't get it, but it means that if you try to leave, she makes certain you don't live long. She makes sure that all the rules she sets forth are followed exactly."

"How so?" Inugami asks. "Is she some super strong magical girl who slaps around anyone who doesn't listen?"

"I don't know," Yukari says with a shrug. "I have to assume she's pretty tough if she's running this particular operation, but no one really knows for certain. I believe the official explanation for that is that anyone who actually fights her is killed before they even get a chance to know what her power is. Personally I think it's just because she's too lazy and has her subordinates do all the work for her. She just waves a hand and twenty different magical girls leap at the chance to do her bidding. Well, in my case it was only the one."

"Frostbite mentioned being the right hand girl, right?" Yagami asks. "Did you happen to do anything that would make someone like that upset with you?"

"Like I said, it's a very organized thing," Yukari says. "We have plenty of groups, all with their own leader. Yuki happened to be mine and Miss Tsukihime's boss, so she was sent to clean up the mess she allowed to happen."

"And I imagine she'll be coming back to finish her business?" Inugami asks.

"Most likely," Yukari affirms. "I'm sure she won't hesitate to kill you people as well, so it's for the best if I leave. She'll kill me off, and you can all go on with your lives."

"Hang on a second!" Inugami interjects. "You think we're the type of people who'll throw someone under the bus just to save our own skins?"

"It's not like that," Yukari begins. "If I stick around, then you'll be killed along with me. Even if we take care of Yuki, Deus will just send more and more magical girls at us until we're killed. The more we take out, the more of a threat we become and things just get worse and worse until we're killed. If I leave then Yuki kills me, and everything continues on as it would normally."

"Is that so?" I ask.

"So it is," Yukari says with a nod. "None of us even knew each other until right now. We hardly have the kind of bond that would make helping me seem like a good idea, so why do you even care?"

"I don't," I tell her.

"Scarlet?!" Inugami sounds shocked.

"I don't know you, Yukari. I don't know a lot of things at the moment. That said, I know that leaving someone on their own when I could help them makes me feel really sick. So no, I don't care that I don't know you, but I do want to help."

"Why?!" Yukari asks. "You're just going to get yourself killed!"

"Then I suppose we'll just have to win," I say.

"Scarlet, it's hardly that simple," Inugami says. "Like the girl said, the more we win the harder it gets because they'll just keep sending more and more magical girls at us. What we would need to do is either completely demolish the organization soul gem by soul gem, or remove the leader."

"You're going to help doggy?" I ask.

"I'm worried about what'll happen if I leave you alone," Inugami replies. "And considering you've already resolved to help Yukari out then I might as well chip in and do whatever I can."

"Is that so… Thank you, Inugami," I tell her.

"Don't mention it," she says. "What about you, Yagami?"

"What about me?" Yagami asks in return.

"What are you and Inko planning on doing?" Inugami clarifies. "You gonna stick around and help out or skip town and avoid this problem?"

"I know what I want to do, but I'd need to discuss it with Inko first," Yagami says. "I can't do either option on my own because that means I'd be leaving Inko to her own devices and that blockhead wouldn't last a week without _someone_ to be there and actually tell her how things work."

"Yes! Inko would likely not last very long without Miku!" Inko announces as she walk through the door.

"Inko! When'd you get back?" Yagami asks.

"Perhaps… Around the time the conversation first mentioned a magical girl yakuza?" Inko offers.

"So, you never left?" I ask.

"Precisely correct!" Inko says with a smile. "The bathroom was simply a pretense for me to wait just outside and think about various things that I've been concerned about."

"And what were you thinking about?" I ask.

"Hmmm… I wonder," Inko says with that smile still attached to her face.

"Well you're here now, so what do you think?" Yagami asks. "What do you want to do, Inko?"

"I wish to stay," Inko says. "There are quite a few things I wish to learn more about and confirm, and leaving before that would trouble me greatly."

"So there we go," Yagami says. "Me and Inko are stuck here with you guys, fighting off a bunch of jackass magical girls. How did this happen? I just wanted to stop by this town for a bit, grab a few grief seeds and move on. Now I've got an amnesiac, a runaway and an army to deal with."

"I just wanted to go shopping," Inugami says. "I was just heading to the store for some eggs and now all this. Not exactly how I pictured my day going."

"So what are we going to do?" I ask. "I hope our plan isn't to wait until they show up at our door."

"No, definitely not," Inugami says. "Hmmm. Well first off, if you can avoid it, never go out alone. We're using the buddy system from now on. If you're out there alone and one of those goons gets the drop on you then there really isn't anything that can be done, but having a partner increases survivability."

"I'm reasonably certain that more magical girls survived when paired up then they do when on their own," Inko says. "Beyond that I imagine survival rates start dropping."

"Alright, teams of two whenever possible," Yagami says. "There's only five of us though. I suppose we'll have to work out some kind of system. Maybe a pair then a team of three? I dunno."

"Those are detail we can work out later," Inugami says. "I think we should probably go out on patrols, or something."

"Right, we can take out any witches we find and hopefully avoid being caught off guard by sitting around the same place all the time," Yagami agrees.

"Maybe we should exchange numbers as well," Yukari says. "If we run into Yuki or anyone else I'd like to be able to call for backup."

"I don't have a cellphone," Inko says. "Ah! Miku has one!"

"Scarlet, do you have a phone?" Inugami asks me. I shrug. "Right, don't know what I expected. Well, we can work out some kind of thing where Scarlet or Inko is always with someone who has a phone. That sounds pretty good, right?"

*knock knock knock*

"Hello?" my mom says, opening the door a bit. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

Besides discussing how we're going to take down a magical crime syndicate?

"No, nothing," I tell her.

"Good. The food's ready," she informs us. "There's enough for everyone, so don't assume you need to rush down and claim your share."

"Sounds good," Inugami says. "We'll be down in a minute."

My mom nods and closes the door, leaving us to our own devices.

"Okay, serious talk over," Inugami says. "Food time now, serious stuff later."

"I agree!" Inko says. "My stomach is feeling rather empty since I haven't eaten in a while. Let's go Miku!"

"H-hey wait, don't drag me!"

Inugami, Yagami and Inko all departed for the food leaving me and Yukari alone.

"I still don't get it," Yukari says. "We only met today, not even an hour ago. Why are you all so intent on helping me?"

"Hmmm… I wonder," I say. "Well, I can't say much about them, but I don't like the idea of not helping you, as I already said. If I can help someone out, I don't see why I shouldn't."

"That can't be it," Yukari says. "You have to have some kind of reason. Why bother helping me when you wouldn't benefit from it at all?"

"I don't really think I need a reason to help someone," I tell her.

"…" Yukari remains silent, like she's thinking about something. "Thank you. I know I may not sound as grateful as I should, but I really mean it. I just don't want to see anyone get hurt. I just wanted to have this entire situation resolve itself as cleanly as possible."

"We don't always get that lucky," I tell her. "… Are you okay?"

"What's with that?" she asks.

"You still seem really down. Are you feeling okay? … It's about your friend, isn't it?"

"N-No! Why would I be sad about that?" Yukari asks. "There wasn't anything I could do about it. I don't see a point in being sad about something you can't affect."

"Liar."

Yukari looks down at the floor and doesn't respond.

"Do you want a little time to yourself?" I ask her. "Some time to get your thoughts in order?"

She nods her head slightly. I get up and head out of my room, making sure to close the door behind me. It took maybe a few seconds before I could hear Yukari sobbing on the other side of my door. I sigh and walk off. I want to go back in and comfort her or something but I don't know how. For now I suppose I'll leave her alone. I'll bring back some food for her. It probably won't do much to cheer her up, but it won't make the situation any worse. That thought in mind, I headed down to the dinner table where everyone else was already eating.

"Inko! Hands off my share of the food!"

"But isn't it a customary friendship ritual to share food?"

"Not in this scenario!"

"She's right Inko. What you need to do is spoonfeed your food to her."

"Really? Understood! Yagami, say 'aaaah.'"

"You don't have to feed me! Dang it Inugami, why are you teaching her weird things?"

"Because it's funny."

"What a lively crowd," I muse as I take a seat next to Inugami.

"I can't recall the last time we had such a loud meal," my mother says.

"I can't either," my father agrees. "It's kind of nice."

"Is that so?" I ask. "Maybe I should go outside again. I'm sure I'd be able to pick up another couple of girls to bring home for dinner."

"Scarlet, perhaps it's best to not bring up 'picking up girls' in front of your parents," Inugami informs me.

"Huh? Why?"

"If nothing else for my sanity, try not to go picking up a bunch more girls," Inugami says. "We've got enough to deal with, and all we have is those two and Yukari."

"Okay then. For Inugami's sake I won't pick up any more girls," I say.

"H-hey now, when you word it like that-"

"Oh, so you're saying you'd rather just be with Inugami?" Yagami asks.

"Yagami, don't say things that can be easily misinterpreted!" Inugami yells.

"It's revenge!" Yagami says. "Revenge for teaching Inko weird things!"

"It seems I'll need to escalate things," Inugami says. "If you're going to attempt revenge in such a way, I'll just need to start teaching her even more weird things."

"You wouldn't."

"Wanna try me?"

"Those two get along so well!" Inko declares happily.

"They certainly do," I agree. "If I didn't know any better I'd say that they were the couple here."

"As if I would ever be this annoying dog's girlfriend," Yagami snarls.

"As if I could ever stand more then a few minutes with this exhibitionist," Inugami growls.

"Dog."

"Exhibitionist."

"Dog."

"Exhibitionist."

I frown.

"What's wrong, Scarlet?" Inko asks.

"I'm disappointed. Earlier when we did that teasing thing about couples they got all embarrassed. It was cute. Now they just go to insulting each other."

"Hmm. You're right," Inko notes. "Maybe only certain trigger phrases work on them. … Ah! I've figured out a good phrase to try. Ahem. 'Oh Scarlet, whatever are you talking about? Obviously me and Yagami are the couple here!'"

"E-eh?! C-c-c-c-c-ouple?" Yagami finally breaks away from her argument with my dog and starts blushing.

"I mean it was always obvious," Inugami adds, sounding rather smug. "I was just trying to help it along."

"Shouldn't you be less worried about other couples and more focused on us?" I ask Inugami.

"Eh? U-u-u-u-u-us? Thereisnouswhywouldyoupossiblythinkthatwe'renotacoupleoranythinglikethatIonlyjustmetyouand-"

Inugami continues her high speed rambling as I go back to eating my food, my experiment having provided some interesting results.

"Wow, this is really good," I say. "Mom, you're a very good cook."

"Thank you Sweat Pea," my mom says, sounding rather unsure. "Maybe quiet meals are better after all."

"I can't say I disagree," my father says. "I get the feeling we'll be stuck with this for a while though."

"Well, at least things will be more interesting," mom admits.

"So who's going to go with who?" Yagami asks our small group.

"Go where?" my father asks.

"We were thinking of going out shopping for a bit," Inugami picks up for Yagami. "Our new friend, Yukari, is feeling a bit down so we though we'd hit a few stores and see if we could cheer her up. We were going to split up to cover more ground that way."

"We were thinking of a group of two and a group of three," Yagami comes back into the conversation. "The problem is, Inko doesn't have a cell phone, and Scarlet doesn't know if she has one so they can't be alone with each other."

"Sweat Pea, why don't you go with Yagami and Yukari?" my mother suggests. "You and Yagami were the first ones to meet her, right? I imagine she'd be more comfortable with you two then with someone she doesn't know at all."

"… Yeah, that sounds pretty good," Inugami says.

"Considering the circumstances that is the most logical conclusion to draw," Inko says.

"Why the disappointment?" I ask.

"I'm not disappointed," Inugami replies.

"Disappointment isn't an emotion I have any experience with," Inko says.

"They didn't get the partners they wanted," Yukari says, coming down the stairs and taking a seat at the table.

"You alright?" Yagami asks.

"I'm fine," Yukari says. "I've got my thoughts in order a bit, I'll live."

"Is that so?" I ask.

"So it is," Yukari affirms.

"That being the case, what do you mean by not getting the partners they wanted?" I ask.

"To preserve their privacy, I'll just say this. I'm good at healing wounds. Broken hearts at significantly harder to repair."

"Wh-wh-what broken heart?!" Inugami asks.

"My heart is perfectly intact I'll have you know!" Inko says.

"Sweetie, have you always had friends that are so… volatile?" my dad asks. I shrug in response.

"Right, so once we're done with the food we head out!" Yagami declares.

"She means 'please wait for me to finish before leaving,'" Inko translates.

"I'm not going to contest that," Yagami says before digging into her food.

"Nor am I," Inugami agrees, eating her food with equal ferocity.

"Let's get ready for some shopping then," I say before returning to my food.

"Thank you for the food!" Inko announces.

"… Thank you for the food," Yukari also declares.

"Honey," Dad asks.

"Yes, dear?" Mom responds.

"We'll have enough food for all of our daughter's friends when they come over, right?"

"Well, we can hope."


	5. Chapter 5: Are You Okay?

**Author Notes:**

Hmmm, a character with short, silver hair, named Sakuya in a story where the lead is based on Flandre Scarlet… Huh, what a coincidence! Yeah, her name being Sakuya wasn't intentional. Her name was originally something else, but then I had another idea for a character named Sakuya who doesn't show up in this story, and I repurposed the name for her. What's Sakuya's role in the story? Find out next week!

Also, backstory and bonding for both Inugami and Yagami. I had both those backstories thought out for them, but I didn't really have anyway in the story where they could be brought up so I became worried that it would forever be stuck in my head. Then I realized I could totally squeeze it in here! A little shoehorned, sure, but I think it worked pretty well and did a good job highlighting the similarities between the two. Yeah, they're very similar characters, and that was kind of intentional. It made writing the occasional banter between them a lot more fun. I also liked that backstory sharing because it's more or less the only backstory that would get told in that fashion. I mean, Yukari's backstory is pretty easy to imagine, and Inko, Yuki, Sakuya and Scarlet don't really have backstories. Well, Yuki does, but that's not important. Well, Sakuya does too, but that's also not important. Inko doesn't. Scarlet kind of does, but not really.

Anyway, Escher, the mannequin witch with a deceitful nature. If the name doesn't give it away, the rooms in her labyrinth are based on MC Escher works. I liked this fight because it was the first time we actually had a witch in this story fight with her familiars. In case you were curious what I mean by that, the "secret" behind her labyrinth is that each room is actually one of her familiars. That's why the same door leads to different rooms each time, and why it's so easy to mess with them.

Scarlet and Sakuya also had a pretty interesting conversation about Deus' group, didn't they? Scarlet accusing them and Sakuya not-quite-defending them. In some ways, that's a part of Sakuya's role in this story, to be a counterpoint to Scarlet. Not necessarily in the sense of continually arguing, but in the sense of being a good foil. That's something we'll get around to in the coming chapters.

Before I end the author notes and start the chapter allow me to say two things. First: "Hmmmmm. A mermaid witch with swords and a candlehead witch who fights with illusions. I wonder what that could mean." Second: "I'm really looking forward to next week's chapter." Now that that's said, we're done here. Feel free to leave any and all feedback. See you next week.

**Chapter 5: "Are you okay?"**

Nothing. Nothing has happened in any meaningful capacity. No spontaneous ambushes, no appearances from Yuki, not a single murmur of any type of activity. We came up with the buddy system here in case of sudden attack, but it's like we're completely invisible in the eyes of the magical mafia. However, since we're not idiots, we still stuck with the buddy system. Just because they haven't attacked doesn't mean they won't, so we've stayed on guard. Today I was patrolling with Inugami and Yagami, while Inko and Yukari took the other side of the city. We had just finished taking out another witch, and we took a well deserved rest as the barrier dissolved around us.

"Sheesh," Yagami says, transforming back into her street clothes. "That one was a pain."

"I'll say," Inugami says. "Yagami, why didn't you tell us that stupid candlehead had your cloning ability?"

"How am I supposed to know that?" Yagami asks. "Not like we illusion users have a network we use to communicate with each other."

"At least Scarlet picked out the real one. How'd you figure that one out?" Inugami asks. "Some kind of sixth sense?"

"Deductive reasoning."

"… You guessed?" Yagami asks.

"Well, kind of," I admit. "The clones came from all around us, but the real one never moved when the clones came in, so there was no attempt to trick us into thinking that wasn't the real witch, it was just bringing in reinforcements. Of course it could have been a fake from the beginning. That's why I guessed."

"Well, it was a hell of a shot," Inugami says. "It's starting to get a little late. We should head back and talk with Inko and Yukari about what we discovered."

"You mean talk about nothing?" Yagami asks.

"… Yeeeeeah, unfortunately," Inugami admits.

"I'm looking forward to getting back home," I say.

"Then let's go."

We start walking back, then everything goes back… and suddenly I'm in Inugami's arms.

"… I'm not against waking up in your arms more often."

"Sh-shut up!" she yells at me. "What happened? You just lost consciousness and nearly ate concrete. You didn't take that much damage against the witch, did you?"

I shake my head and stand back up.

"Is your soul gem getting really corrupted?" Yagami asks.

I check. … Nope, seems fine. My gem doesn't seem to corrupt as fast as Inugami and Yagami's soul gems do. Probably because I don't use any magic when fighting like they do. It'd help if I knew what my magic was, but I'll accept not needing to use grief seeds that often as a good compromise.

"… Scarlet, when was the last time you actually slept?" Inugami asks.

"How long ago did we decide to help out Yukari?" I answer with a question.

"About three weeks," Yagami answers.

"Then about three weeks."

"You haven't slept in three weeks?!" Inugami exclaims. "What the hell have you been doing?!"

"Well, I wait until mom and dad fall asleep, then I head out into the city and start looking around to see if I can find anything important, like witches or any of Deus' magical girl army. Haven't found anything interesting yet."

"You freaking idiot!" Inugami yells at me. "What the hell are you thinking, going out on your own? The whole reason this group system exists is to make sure that we're not in any significant danger, and you just go and say 'screw it, I don't need a team,' and do your own thing!"

"I-I'm sure she has a reason," Yagami says timidly.

"I don't care if she has the greatest reason a person could give!" Inugami says. "If Scarlet keeps being an idiot she's going to get herself killed!"

"Is that so?" I ask.

"Yes! What if you collapsed when we were fighting that witch?" Inugami asks. "What if we finally meet this Deus and you collapse right at her feet? Scarlet, you're only going to get yourself killed if you just go nonstop like this."

"I don't feel ill or anything," I tell her. "Prior to the collapsing that started recently I've been mostly fine."

"Wait, this wasn't the first time you passed out?" Yagami asks.

"Yeah, a few nights ago I ran into this weird mermaid witch and I blacked out while fighting her. When I woke up it turned out she had cut me in half with one of her swords. Turns out if you apply a little magic then even that's easy to heal from."

*slap*

"Don't act so unflappably calm about stuff like that!" Inugami yells at me.

"… That hurt," I note.

"Please forgive me," Yagami says with a slight bow before she slaps me as well. "Scarlet, I've lost enough friend already, please don't make me lose another one to something stupid like this."

"I don't get it," I say. "I'm trying to help and get this settled as quickly as possible. Is that really that bad?"

"When you're putting yourself in danger like that, then yes, it is that bad," Yagami says.

"We're going back to your house," Inugami says. "We can save the debrief for tomorrow. I'll call Inko and Yukari and tell them they can head home. We're going back to your house and you're going to get some sleep, got it? This is non-negotiable."

"… I think sleep is a waste of time," I say. "I could be doing something else, something way more productive."

"Scarlet, please," Yagami says. "Do it for us. Just get a good sleep every once in a while, okay?"

"Okay," I concede. "I'll sleep in for a bit."

"Thank you," Inugami says. "Come on now, let's get you some rest."

***Scene Break***

"Haaaa," Inugami sighs as she and Yagami leave Scarlet's house.

"What's with you?" Yagami asks. "Something still bugging you?"

"That idiot is what's bugging me," Inugami replies. "Seriously, thinking she can just go around, doing whatever she pleases and not caring about the consequences. I want to know what she was like pre-amnesia. If she was anything like she is now, then how the heck did she ever live this long?"

"She seems to know what she's doing," Yagami points out. "How else would she be able to head out on her own and not get herself killed? I think you're selling her a bit short, aren't you?"

"She is short!" Inugami counters. "She's short, flat, always has this blank look on her face. She looks like a doll. She's pretty, but devoid of all emotion. She's some doll that someone made and brought to life with magic. That's what I think. That's why she doesn't have memories, she was just brought to life that day. Or something."

"You sound like an idiot," Yagami tells her.

"Shut up," Inugami elegantly responds. She pauses for a moment before sighing again. "I mean, okay, she can take care of herself. I'm just worried about her, you know? What if you found out Inko was sneaking out at night and dealing with witches on her own and stuff?"

"I'd tell her I'm proud of her initiative and furious at her poor decision making," Yagami responds. "The fury would probably outweigh the pride. She'd get a very stern scolding, and probably no desserts for a week."

"You sound like a parent grounding their child," Inugami points out.

"It's an effective punishment," Yagami says with a shrug. "Girl likes her desserts."

"Speaking of the girl, how'd you say you met her again?" Inugami asks. "I'm kind of curious. You don't seem like two people who would hang out that much."

"Found her while hunting," Yagami replies. "Ran into a witch barrier and found her trying to fight it off. She was failing pretty miserably so I had to intervene. She followed me home like some stray cat and now we're here."

"Your parents didn't object to the weird girl following you around?" Inugami asks.

"What parents?" Yagami asks. "Inko's never said anything about hers, and mine have been dead for years."

"O-oh. I-"

"Please don't let the next words out of your mouth be 'I'm sorry,'" Yagami says. "Why even bother apologizing for something like that? And to preempt any other concerns or questions, and since I know you're curious, there was a car accident. I had to spend half a year in the hospital as a result. I spent a lot of time on the streets, meeting people, watching people leave me, spending a lot time barely managing to stay alive. It was a miserable time in my life."

"Is that why Kyubey came to recruit you?" Inugami asks.

"Please, the white cat had been approaching me since I first woke up in the hospital," Yagami says. "Kept trying to convince me to become a magical girl. 'Wish your parents back to life! Wish for a comfortable home to live in!' Stuff like that. I didn't care enough to actually ever make the contract, so I didn't."

"… Yet here you are."

"Yet here I am," Yagami confirms before continuing her story. "About a year ago I hit a real low. I was getting fed up with just barely being able to scrounge up enough to keep myself alive, with really only knowing a bunch of people who would die as soon as I met them. I found a revolver in a dumpster I was rooting through, loaded and everything. And well…"

Yagami extends her thumb and index finger and points the "gun" at her temple.

"Bang!" She shouts, miming the action of shooting herself in the head. "… Well, that was the idea anyway."

"Couldn't go through with it?" Inugami asks.

"Chickened out," Yagami confirms. "I dropped the gun and started sobbing. Kyubey showed up and offered the magical girl thing again, and I accepted. I was sick and tired of being alone, so I wished for friends. Stupid rat has a pretty twisted sense of humor, since that wish gave me that stupid outfit and the ability to clone myself."

"At least you met Inko," Inugami offers. "She's your friend, right?"

Yagami chuckles slightly.

"You're right. I know I've said that she wouldn't survive a week without me, but I'm honestly more worried what I'd do without her. I don't think I could stand being alone for another day."

"Well, that's why we're here," Inugami says. "Unless you plan on skipping town once we've dealt with Deus, we'll still be around."

"I know," Yagami says with a smile. "Thanks for that."

"No need to thank me," Inugami says with a smirk. "Girls like us have to stick together."

"What's that mean? I assume that you're referring to something a bit more then just us being magical girls, right?"

"Very perceptive," Inugami replies. "I'm kind of like you. Key words being 'kind of.' The key difference is that I left my family, rather then having them taken from me. Papa was apathetic towards everyone and hardly ever home, while Mama was either drunk, abusive or both. The only thing resembling a positive relationship I had was this dog I met in the park one day. He didn't have an tags or ID or anything, so I called him Shirou. One day I was fed up with home, so I ran away. Shirou followed me, probably because I was the only one who had bothered to even acknowledge he existed in a long time. Poor guy was really old though, and one night he went to sleep and just didn't wake up. Kyubey told me I could bring him back if I wanted, but I thought that would be too cruel. I don't know how much Shirou had been through, and I didn't want him to have to go through much more. I wished him back, but only for a day so I could say goodbye properly. So I kind of know what you're talking about when you say how tired you were of being alone. I was there myself for a time. Now I'm here."

"A girl who lost everything and a girl who left everything behind," Yagami says quietly.

"In the end neither of us really have much," Inugami says.

"Completely false," Yagami says. "We have many problems to deal with."

"I wouldn't say many," Inugami says. "Just three. A blonde doll, a white-haired idiot, and an entire organization of magical girls out for our blood."

"Sucks to be us, doesn't it?"

"Definitely. Can't say I'm necessarily unhappy with it," Inugami says.

"Same here," Yagami agrees. "Though Inko gets on my nerves a bit too often for my tastes."

"Please, Scarlet drives me up a wall way more than Inko could ever bug you. Sure, I get it, amnesia and all that, but the level of straight up naiveté that she can demonstrate is freaking ridiculous!"

"I know how that feels," Yagami says. "Freaking Inko continually manages to astound me."

"Please. You were in the kitchen so you weren't there when I put Scarlet to bed-"

"I was grabbing a few snacks, you're not wrong."

"But you know what she did? She gave me a kiss on the cheek!"

"She didn't."

"She did! Said that according to her mom, whenever you telling someone you care about goodnight you give 'em a kiss. I had to explain to her just what her mom meant by that and why you don't do that to friends."

"Reminds me of Inko. For the first few weeks I kept waking up and finding her in my bed! Apparently she heard somewhere that partners are supposed to sleep together. We're not those kind of partners, and I had to explain the difference. That kind of stuff is common knowledge, isn't it?"

"You'd think so, wouldn't you?"

For the rest of the night Yagami and Inugami gossiped and swapping stories about their friends.

***Scene Break***

… I know I promised Inugami and Yagami that I'd sleep in, but I can't. Not for any special reason of "I must go out and do something," I just can't sleep. I'd really appreciate being able to pass out right now. I sigh and get out of bed. I'll head out, walk around for a few minutes, then come back. That should allow me some good sleep, right? Tire myself out on a walk. Yeah, sounds good.

Not even bothering to change out of my nightdress, I open up my window and hop outside. I like this city at night. It's so quiet and empty. It's nice. It also makes it really easy to pick up where the witches are, since there's no interference from all the people walking about. … Like right now, I think I can feel a witch over there.

I start heading for the witch's labyrinth I detected. I work my way through a few alleys and down a few streets. … Wait a second. I'm a super-strong magical girl. Couldn't I just like, toss some of that strength around to get me places faster? Why am I traveling like a ground-based normal human? I transform and get ready for some fancy magical girl traversal, only to realize I've arrived at my destination. Darn. I'll need to keep that in mind though for the next time I get anywhere.

I ready myself for the coming battle, when I notice something odd. The entrance to the witch's labyrinth is pulsing. … I think… I think I can feel another magical girl in there. Oh, so someone is already taking care of this one? I'm not keen on the idea of stealing another girl's hard-earned winnings. I'll still go in though. She might need help. I make sure I've got my spear out and hop into the labyrinth. Okay, time to take in my surround- ow. What just hit me? Hmm? It's my necklace. Why is my necklace hitting me in the face? Hmm? Where'd my hat go?

I start looking around and see my hat up on the ceiling. … Okay then. The room I'm in is really weird. There's all sorts of staircases that start on the walls and go into the ceiling, the wall or some other weird direction. Who designed this room? The door's over there on the wall, so how am I… Wait a minute.

I let go of my spear, and it goes flying up towards the ceiling, just like my hat. Or in this case, I suppose it would be the floor. So I'm on the ceiling, and the floor's actually the ceiling. That explains why my skirt is gravitating upwards also. That's annoying. So how am I supposed to get up there, the stairs?

…

I walk towards a set of stairs and walk up them. Sure enough, now I'm on the wall, standing on it like it was the floor. What an odd place. At least my skirt's only flowing to one side instead of completely flipped over. This is apparently a really breezy room. No idea where the wind is coming from. Okay, let's head for the only door in this place. I cross a few staircases and walls and head towards the door. I open it up and enter. Now I'm on some weird construction. It's made up of a bunch of squares that come together and form a star-like structure. In the center of the construction is a small platform, housing two human-sized beings. The first was some kind of mannequin. It didn't have any distinguishing features, no face or eyes or hair or anything. Just a blank, vaguely humanoid structure with all the joins highlighted. Don't artists use those for drawings?

The second figure was a girl, a magical girl I'll assume. She had short, silver hair and was only wearing a sleeveless white dress. In her hand she had a highly decorated golden spear. Her outfit seems a little too ordinary for it to be a magical girl costume, but considering she's taking some incredibly tough blows, I think it's safe to assume she's magical in nature. Whenever the girl swipes at the mannequin, it's disconnects it's joints from the rest of it's body to dodge. The disconnected body parts can still apparently move, so the girl is being assaulted by the main body, and the limbs that keep attacking and keeping her off guard.

Just as the girl is about to suffer a threefold attack from two halves of an arm and a leg, I jump in and block the blows with my spear.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

"I've done better," she answers. "Who're you?"

"Scarlet. You?"

"Sakuya. Any ideas for how to deal with this segmented abomination?"

"That depends. Anything in the environment we can use to our advantage?"

"The star cube we're in has weird gravity, so as long as your feet are firmly planted then you can't fall off," she says. "Unfortunately that means we can't bring it to the top and push it off the edge."

"What about weird staircase room, right before this?" I ask.

"Staircase room?" Sakuya asks. "The room before this was this tower that you could ascend forever and never find the top, then start descending and never find the bottom."

That's weird. There's only the one door, and I certainly didn't see anyway that multiple paths could converge onto this room. So that means…

"Sakuya, distract the witch for a second."

"Understood," she says. She disappears and reappears right in front of the mannequin's main body. A teleporter, is that right? She delivers a few quick blows to the body before jumping back. I leap in, taking advantage of the opening and swing my spear as hard as I can. The flat side of the blade collides with the body, and the mannequin is sent flying. Luckily I'm a good shot, because the witch goes flying through the door.

"After it?" Sakuya asks.

"Exactly," I confirm.

We both leap back onto the star cube and head through the door. Instead of coming out in the room with the staircases, we're at what appears to be a waterfall. A waterfall as mind bending as the staircases, I'll give it that. So the water somehow flows upwards until it reaches the end of the chute where it cascades down onto a waterwheel which… provides the water with the energy needed to go up the chute? I don't know.

"What in the world?" Sakuya asks. "This was a tower when I came through."

"And a staircase when I dropped in," I tell her. "Looks like this witch plays very loosely with the laws of reality."

"I quite like that," Sakuya says. "What a creative little one. Where'd it go?"

"It's stuck in the water wheel."

Yep. The witch is stuck under the water wheel. It seems to be having a hard time getting out. Me and Sakuya stare at the surreal scene of the witch trying to escape the water wheel, only to get pulled back under.

"Should… Should we help it?" I ask.

"I'm trying to figure that out myself," Sakuya says. "… Yes, we should. That way we can get a better shot at it. I can't hit it when it's hiding under that barrel."

"Water wheel."

"Water wheel, my apologies" Sakuya corrects. She aims carefully, then throws her spear. It pierces the center of the wheel, and the entire contraption falls apart. … So does the room we're in.

"Eh?" I wonder out loud, before me and Sakuya start falling.

"Oh, so if you destroy the main illusion, then the world itself falls apart," Sakuya notes. "How neat!"

Before I can ask what she means by "neat" we both hit the ground. … Considering we're back in the staircase room, maybe it's the ceiling.

"Oh," I say.

"What's up?"

"Found my hat," I say as I grab my hat off the ground and put it back on.

"So where'd the marionette go?" Sakuya asks.

"Mannequin."

"Mannequin, my apologies," Sakuya corrects. "So where'd she go?"

I point up at the ceiling. Sakuya looks up and sees the mannequin witch sitting on the ceiling. It looks right back at her, then waves hello.

"… Well that's just silly," Sakuya says.

Having heard that comment, the witch drops from the ceiling and lands right on top of her. I jump at the witch, ready to attack, but the witch points its hand at the wall and suddenly I go rocketing towards the wall. I slam into it face first, then bring myself back to my feet. Wait a minute. Now I'm standing on the wall, but the witch is still where it was. So it can mess with how gravity works in this room? Well that's fine and dandy, but I know how to do that too. I rush for the stairs and try get back on the same floor as the witch, but it points again and I'm sent flying towards the ceiling. I hit the wall at a decent speed, then I'm sent flying again. And again. And again. I'm sent flying into a new wall again and again. Eventually I'm given a reprieve and allowed to stand back up. The witch is on the same floor as me, so I aim and toss my spear, only to have it go wildly off mark. … Oh yeah, I'm on the ceiling now, and the spear's still affected by gravity. The witch puts a hand to it's mouth and mimes the action of laughing at me, only to be interrupted by Sakuya swinging her staff and decapitating the witch. A thick, ink like liquid flows from the wound as the head goes flying up towards the ceiling/floor/whatever it is. Sakuya tries to hit it again, but the witch dodges her strikes and jumps up to the floor to regain it's head.

"I suppose it's good to know that we can damage it. We just need to catch it off guard before it can detach it's parts itself. But just how are we expected to be able to hit that thing in the first place?" Sakuya asks. "It's slippery as an eel, and every time we get close it switches gravity. Projectile attacks are completely useless, I suppose, if we can't even aim properly. I can't even tell how gravity works anymore."

"It's pretty easy to find out," I tell her. "It's all a matter a perspective."

A copy of my spear appears in my hand. I point the tip upwards, then let go. The spear goes flying towards the ceiling, where it runs straight through the witch's body just as it successfully reattaches it's head, pinning it where it stands.

"Oh! Great shot!" Sakuya says. "Though, how did you know it was going to work like that?"

I point at her skirt which is currently more interested in flying up then it is with actually covering what it should.

"Only our bodies are affected by the gravity change," I say. "Things like our clothes and weapons are still subject to normal gravity. It's an easy way to see how gravity will affect out actions like that."

"I see," Sakuya says. "That's rather clever of you."

"Though there is one thing I'm still wondering."

"What might that be?"

"… You're not wearing any? Really?"

"Oh, that. They're uncomfortable. I can't focus on anything, so I simply don't bother wearing them."

"Is that so?" I ask.

"Perhaps we should focus on the witch, rather then my attire," Sakuya says. "How are we supposed to actually get to it?"

"Take the stairs. They're simple ways to get to the different walls."

"I see. Okay, let's go take care of that witch."

We take a few stair cases and wind up on the floor, as indicated by gravity affecting us as it would normally.

"It's not moving anymore," I note.

"She's not dead if that's what you're wondering," Sakuya says. "After all, if she was then we wouldn't be here, remember?"

Right, witch barriers fade once the witch is dead, which means that this one's still alive. In response to my thought, the witch moves forward, it's body being torn apart by the spear still impaled in it's body. I'm so shocked by the fact that it's ignoring the spear that I wasn't able to dodge the fist it sent flying straight through my chest. The nearly bisected witch then moves the arm it has buried in my chest right and proceeds to tear a large chunk out of my torso. I start bleeding all over the monochrome floor, painting it a bright red. My mind starts going hazy, and it becomes increasingly more difficult to stay conscious, let alone focused on anything.

"Scarl-"

Sakuya's cry is cut short by the witch, still nearly bisected, delivering a quick blow to her neck. Sakuya reflexively grasps her neck and the witch stab my spear through her chest. The two halves of the witch's torso put themselves back together, and the mannequin walks over to me. My head is still in this red haze, so it's hard to tell how close or far away the thing was. It brings it's arm back like it's readying a punch, then brings its fist down. The fist connects with my face, but I don't do so much as flinch. The witch tries again, the punch connecting with the left side of my head. I once again don't even budge. The witch tries once last time to throw a punch. The mannequin pauses when it sees that I've caught its fist.

"You haven't already realized that such pitiful attacks are completely _useless_?" I put extra emphasis on that last word.

I stand back up, still holding onto the witch's fist. The right side of my torso is still completely gone, but I ignore that. I grab onto the witch's arm with my other hand, and squeeze. The upper part of the witch's arm is crushed, and a black, ink-like substance starts flowing from the wound. The witch tries to back away, but my grip is too tight. I spin around and throw the witch right through the one door in this room. I jump into the next room after it. The next room was some kind of staircase in a tower. The witch is further up the stairs then I am. It starts trying to run up the stairs, but I leap towards it and interrupt it before it can make it very far.

"Useless!" I tell it before I slam it's head into the wall over and over again. It's head is crushed a little more with each impact, and the ink starts splattering everywhere. I give it one more bash against the wall before tossing it down the stairs. It tumbles down the rectangular stair case, each collision with the stair case damaging the witch's body more and more. It keeps tumbling down, and I notice that the staircase loops around, and the witch will soon be right next to me. I smile as the mannequin comes within my range. I grab it and begin my feast. I start by biting into the witch's neck, before I move on to other parts of the body. Within minutes the entire witch has been consumed. I wipe the ink away from my mouth as the barrier fades around me, and the alley I was in before is returned to normal.

"W-wait," I say, the red haze finally starting to clear from my mind. "What did I just… Oh god, I did it again, didn't I?"

"That was certainly not a show I was expecting to see tonight."

I turn and see Sakuya standing there, apparently not even harmed.

"Weren't you-"

"Stabbed? Certainly wasn't the first time," Sakuya says. "I'm more curious about your little episode and your wound."

"Wound? I was…" I notice the large chunk I'm missing from the side of my torso. "Oh yeah. I was…"

I start swaying back and forth before I black out. I woke up a few minutes later, my head resting comfortably on Sakuya's lap.

"Oh, our hero finally awakens," she says with a mocking smile. "Happy to rejoin the land of the living?"

"What happened?" I ask.

"You passed out, so I healed you up a bit," Sakuya gives a concise explanation. "I figured I kind of owed you, since you helped me out."

I check and see that my side has been completely healed, and my torso is whole once again. Always nice to have a healer running around. … Wait a minute.

"I thought you were a teleporter, not a healer."

"I don't even know what you're talking about," Sakuya says. "I _wish_ I could teleport. That would make getting around town much easier. Alas, I am just good at healing people. It's a skill that has plenty of use, admittedly."

But I saw you… I probably saw it wrong. Considering I've been passing out recently I probably just had a brief black out and missed her moving from one spot to another.

"So, do you mind me asking what happened?" Sakuya asks. "I got stabbed, you got nearly torn to pieces and then you went a little insane. Does that happen very often with you?"

"No," I tell her. "I wish it didn't happen at all. I don't even know what it is, but I just kind of lose control and go crazy and… aaaaaaah."

"Well, whatever you did, you did help me out," Sakuya says. "So I thank you for that. Admittedly, I would have been fine without your help but assistance is always appreciated, especially amongst other magical girls."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Well… Oh, I might as well be honest," Sakuya says. "I got severely overconfident. I thought 'Hey, I'm a pretty tough magical girl. I can easily take out a witch without transforming or using any magic. This'll be simple!' It's the equivalent of fighting a boss in an RPG with all your armor and accessories unequipped and without using any spells. It was an awful attempt at a challenge run, considering it could have gotten me killed if I kept it up. That would have been dreadful."

"So that's why," I muse to myself. "So those count as equipment. I understand."

"No, I already explained those," Sakuya says. "Too uncomfortable."

"Well then, I should go back home," I say, pulling myself to my feet. "You can keep the grief seed, if there was one. I just want to go home."

As I say that I black out again and hit the ground face first.

"Are you well?" Sakuya asks as she rouses me back to the realm of the awake.

"I'm fine," I tell her as I stand myself back up. "I haven't slept in a while."

"How long, may I ask, is a while?"

"About three weeks."

"Wow," Sakuya seems shocked. "Do you have insomnia? You're a magical girl, so you should be able to fix that."

"No, I've just been doing what I did tonight," I explain. "Patrolling about, making sure no rogue magical girls are plotting an ambush."

"Please, magical girls don't plan ambushes," Sakuya says. "They wouldn't even know you exist, so why would they try to attack you when you're the one looking for them?"

… I briefly struggle with whether or not I should tell her. I grip my necklace and start fiddling with it as I think. She could be with Deus' group, which would be bad. But if she's with that group, then shouldn't she already know who I am? Yuki pretty clearly saw me and Yagami, so wouldn't she report that to her boss, and have that information passed down the chain so that they would be on the lookout for us? I imagine she'd recognize me if that was the case.

"See, me and my friends have caught the attention of some unscrupulous magical girls," I tell her. "A recent friend of ours was caught up in some shady business with them and tried to get out, so now they're hunting her down and we're working to protect her from them."

"Unscrupulous how?" Sakuya asks.

"Well she said that they're very strict about their rules, and if you step out of line you're killed. Sometimes they're required to kill people who may even be completely innocent. It's a twisted system run by some twisted people."

"Hmmm. But how large is it?" Sakuya asks.

"I don't know any numbers, but the way she talked about it made it seem like it was a very large organization."

"Then could it be that the wing she worked for was just corrupt?" she asks.

"What do you mean?"

"Well even the law is such a large force that corruption happens right under the noses of those who mean well," Sakuya explains. "Could it be that this group is actually completely benevolent, and your friend just happened to have a boss who abused their power?"

"I find it hard to believe," I say. "The leader of the group is supposedly extremely powerful, as you would need to be to run an organization as large as she's made it sound. I find it hard to believe that someone that powerful, someone who created this group in the first place, would ever let it grow to a point where she doesn't know what any of her subordinates are doing. So if it is supposed to be a benevolent organization there are two options: Either she doesn't know, in which case she's incompetent, or she knows just how corrupted her underlings are and allows it. Neither option sounds good."

"I see your point," Sakuya says. "But what if it wasn't necessarily that she allowed it, so much as she couldn't do anything about it? What if the corruption was so far spread that rooting it all out would cause too much ruckus and pain, and make it so that the entire group would fall apart? While people may be hurt by the corruption, it is likely far less than people who would be hurt by the system falling into utter chaos."

"Then that means she's letting it happen, _and_ she's incompetent for letting that kind of behavior spread that far without doing anything about it," I counter. "I'll concede, from what I've been told, they at least started as something good. They took in magical girls who were alone and near death and provided them with the things needed to survive, provided they did as they were told. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but the problem is when innocent peopl- no, the problem is when _anyone_ who's outside the magical girl system gets involved with it. Innocent, guilty, it doesn't matter. When you start bringing normal humans into our business, that's not okay."

"I agree completely," Sakuya says. "Magical girls and humans are on such other levels that the two really should never be allowed to mix. In terms of serious business things, I should clarify. I personally see no problem with magical girls having friends who are completely human. Just don't bring them into our world. It's not their place."

"And that's what I've been told is happening," I say. "I was told that my friend was ordered on more then one occasion to kill someone who likely never had anything to do with magical girls. She's not allowed to refuse either, or she'll be killed. It's an awful group of awful people."

"And do you have any first-hand evidence of this?" Sakuya asks. "Perhaps your friend is merely misleading you in an attempt to stage a coup and claim leadership of this organization?"

"Considering the one other person I met from the group didn't really do much besides try and kill her for leaving the group, and kill me and my friend for not wanting that to happen, I don't really feel that I need evidence."

"Perhaps you're right," Sakuya says. "However, not knowing about this group you're talking about, I can't say anything. I'll simply have to take your word for it."

She doesn't sound convinced at all. It seems more like she's giving up the argument not because I won, but because she's bored of this talk. Sakuya briefly seems surprised for a moment, before regaining her composure.

"What's with you?" I ask.

"That necklace," she says. "Do you know where you got it?"

"Not at all," I say, firmly grasping the necklace. "What, do you know where it came from?" If she does then that'd be a real help.

"Not at all," she says. "Though I feel like I've seen it somewhere before… Oh, that's going to bug me for a long time. It's like when you've got a song stuck in your head and realize you've forgotten the name. It's on the tip of my tongue, but it just won't click. What a shame. Must not have been important if I can't remember. Oh well. I suppose I shall take my leave. It was a pleasure meeting you Scarlet."

"Same to you Sakuya," I tell her.

Sakuya spins on her heel, turning away from me. She starts walking off, and before long she's disappeared from view. I do the same, turning and heading back home. Once there I leap back into my room through the window, transform back into my nightdress and collapse onto my bed. Within seconds of my head hitting the pillow, I've fallen into a wonderfully relaxing sleep.


End file.
